No is Not an Answer
by kezztip
Summary: My version of how things with Rachel and Shelby should have gone after Regionals Season 1 Rachel/Shelby/Jesse
1. Chapter 1

**A.N. This glee fic says everything I wanted to say about the way Shelby treated Rachel as well as the whole Beth-adoption-solution. It was kind of cathartic to write (even though I have a lovely mother who would never sell me to finance a career on Broadway). Let me know what you think. Also, don't own Glee etc., etc.**

NO IS NOT AN ANSWER

It was the day after Vocal Adrenaline's victory at Regionals. Although scuttling the competition at every such event was usually enough to keep Shelby Corcoran on a high for at least a week, this particular occasion saw her collapsed on her couch draining a bottle of red. It was not a particularly productive activity for the dynamic choir director; ordinarily she would be brainstorming bizarrely innovative routines for Nationals (although it was hard to top a dance routine performed solely by her show choir walking on their hands). But this time she just could not summon the desire to give a damn.

As she sipped her wine, she tried to pinpoint the exact cause of her ennui. Was it her still unfulfilled desire for a family that she had had such high hopes of achieving, only to throw away her own efforts? Was it the angry look of disgust from her most gifted protégé, Jesse St James, after he had passed Rachel in the hallway at Regionals after she had been spurned once again in her last futile attempt to reach out to her mother? It was painful to see the respect bordering on awe Jesse had held for her die from his eyes as he had hardened his jaw and walked away from her, walking in the same direction as her daughter, now she thought of it. Most likely the hollow feeling in her heart had much to do with the loss not once but twice of the daughter she had felt connected to since she had first turned somersaults in her belly when Shelby had played her Best of Barbra album to her unborn baby. The worst part was that each time it had been Shelby's choice to walk away. At least the first time she could put the blame on her youth and that rather inhumane contract the Berry men had made her sign. That was not the case this time.

It was not until last night that she was really called to account for what kind of mother she was. Who would have thought that the one to hold the mirror up to her would be a teenage delinquent baby daddy?

_Flashback…_

"_Which one is yours?" she had asked. "Does she have a name?"_

"_No," the girl had said. "Beth," the boy contradicted._

"_Pretty," Shelby judged, smiling at the beautiful infant. "I like that name." She had then turned her beaming smile on the exhausted pair of teenage parents and offered their daughter a home with her. She had overheard the blonde admit that she did not want to keep the baby so as she promised to love and cherish their little girl and give her everything a child could want, she did not believe they would be too difficult to convince. They probably couldn't wait to unload their awkward teenage blunder onto whatever grown-up was willing to shoulder their burden. Training pubescent performers for the last 10 years had made Shelby an expert in directing young people to do exactly what she wanted. As the young blonde listened consideringly to Shelby, it was obvious that she would not present a problem; probably could not wait to sign this tiny life away and get back to her campaign for prom queen. But the young man with muscles the size of bowling balls was not such a quick sale. It was when she got to the part about how she had always longed for a daughter and what a wonderful mother she would make that he cut across her self-testimonial with _

"_Are you for fucking real?"_

"_Puck!" the blonde reprimanded, frowning at the boy._

"_What?" he responded. "You aren't actually buying this crap? Have you forgotten whose mother this is? After the way she fucked over Rachel, you can't seriously be thinking of giving her our daughter?"_

_Shelby was taken aback by his bluntness but quickly recovered. "What happened between Rachel and I is very complicated. I assure you it has no bearing on my fitness as a mother."_

"_Oh really? So playing at being a mother for a couple of days and then saying, 'sorry, I'm just not hearing violins playing like I expected so run along now' is your idea of good parenting? And how the hell did you even know that Quinn had her baby anyway?" Puck read the truth in the guilty flush on Shelby's skin. "Let me guess, Rachel told you. And you just came trotting right along as soon as you heard. And I thought only lawyers were ambulance chasers."_

"_You don't understand," Shelby had cried as the couple started to turn away from her, "I had no choice! I never had a choice. I just wanted another chance. That's all I've ever wanted – to do it over again."_

"_Then why didn't you take it?" Puck countered. "One thing you can say about Berry is she's forgiving like crazy – she once told me if she carried a grudge against everybody who'd been mean to her, she wouldn't have anyone to talk to. So if there's anyone who would have given you a second chance, it's her. Lady, if you can't be a halfway decent mother to your own daughter, there's no way in hell I'm giving you a shot at being one to mine."_

With a groan, Shelby dropped her head into her hands. She had thought that moment when she had packed up her apartment in New York and admitted to herself she was never going to make it on Broadway was the most like a failure she could possibly feel.

She was getting _so _tired of being wrong.

It was just as Shelby was debating opening another bottle from her wine cellar that she heard a knock on her front door, a sharp, repetitive machine gun burst of sounds that demanded entrance rather than requesting. _Probably one of the parents of my bratty team, all bent out of shape because their little Suzy wasn't given a solo, _Shelby thought as she shuffled to the door, dragging her hair into some kind of order.

Shelby opened the door and found the last person she expected to be standing there, carrying one suitcase and dragging a pink trolley-bag behind her. _Wrong again_.

GLEE / GLEE / GLEE / GLEE / GLEE / GLEE / GLEE / GLEE / GLEE / GLEE /

"Rachel?" Shelby gasped, with a theatricality that would make her daughter proud. "What are you doing here?"

"Good evening, Shelby," Rachel replied, putting her bags down so they were lined up neatly against the wall. "I hope you don't mind but I have decided to address you by your Christian name. 'Miss Corcoran' sounds too formal and 'mother' or any such equivalent word would be overly familiar at this point in our relationship." Shelby stared at her daughter, not comprehending a word falling out of the composed brunette's mouth. "You may call me Rachel, of course," she finished helpfully. "You wouldn't happen to have any honey and lemon tea, by any chance? I find it both a soothing blend mentally as well as beneficial to my vocal chords."

"Rachel, I don't understand… I thought we agreed… why do you have your luggage with you?"

Rachel sighed. "Well, I really was hoping we could have the tea first before we broached that particular topic, but if you insist…"

"Consider this insisting," Shelby replied with a most credible impression of a mother. "Give me an explanation for this home invasion. The short version, please."

"I'm moving in," Rachel answered, as one stating a simple fact.

"Alright, slightly less short than that." But Rachel was too busy poking her nose into the surrounding rooms to attend. Her mother had no choice but to follow her petite daughter down the hallway.

"Is this the guest room?" Rachel asked, opening the door on a room decorated in pale blue and silver. "This would be perfect for me! I see the window is surrounded by enough foliage so that it should sufficiently absorb the sound of my voice, thus preventing my singing practice from offending your neighbours. We have had some issues at my fathers' – I mean, the Berrys' house in that regard. I had not thought of it till now but not being threatened with law suits will be a major advantage to my living with you."

"Rachel, will you slow down for one minute," Shelby commanded in her most authoritative teacher's voice. It never failed to have its effect and Rachel obediently turned her large brown eyes on her mother. "Now, what is all this talk about you moving in with me? You must realise how impossible that is. Even if we had not decided it would be a mistake for me to be involved in your life, you must know your fathers would never allow it."

"Actually, _we_ never decided your involvement was a mistake." Rachel clasped her hands together in front of her. It was the only sign that she was not in complete control of her nerves as she held her mother's gaze. "You were the one who came to that conclusion. I just agreed so you wouldn't think I was too needy."

Her words tore at Shelby's conscience, stinging those fresh wounds Rachel's shaven-headed friend had inflicted with his harsh accusations. She had painted walking away from Rachel as self-sacrifice, but was it really abandonment?

"Rachel, sweetheart, you are a strong, amazing young woman," Shelby said gently, reaching a hand out towards her daughter, then dropping the hand as Rachel shied away from her touch. She persevered, "You already have two loving parents who would move heaven and earth to make you happy. You don't need me in your life – it would just be confusing for everyone involved. You don't need – "

"Don't tell me what I need," Rachel lashed out, finally breaking character from the confident girl she had been portraying and lapsing back to her true self; an angry and hurt teenager. "You've spent 4 hours and 27 minutes with me in total so don't you dare presume to tell me what I need. Or don't need." She swiped furiously at the errant tear that escaped her eye as she glared at the woman who had repeatedly walked away from her. "Even from that limited amount of time, you should have been able to see how much I _do_ need a mother." When Shelby continued to look helplessly at her, she elaborated. "The dress. Those stories I told you about my childhood. And about my feelings for Finn and then… Jesse. I was trying to show you how much I needed you. But you had your mind made up about me 15 minutes after we met so naturally you couldn't see what was obvious to a blind person."

"But your dads – "

"My dads," Rachel repeated, rolling her eyes. "My dads may adore me and dote on me, but they have about as much knowledge of my inner workings than if I was a cocker spaniel. I tried to hint at that when I told you how they would bring me glasses of water when I was upset so I now confuse sorrow with thirst. You chose to see that as a charming anecdote of how caring they are instead of a picture of two men who are utterly hopeless at providing comfort and understanding for the kind of issues a young girl growing up in a town as harshly close-minded as Lima has to face. In the end I gave up going to them for consolation when I needed it as it only ended in them feeling badly for not being able to give it and then I would feel even more miserable for making them feel bad. I was hoping I finally had someone in my life that I didn't have to wear a showface for all the time, someone who was so much like me that she would instinctively understand. But you didn't want me." The tears were coming faster now. As Rachel dug a clean handkerchief out of her cardigan pocket, Shelby sat down lifelessly on the guest room bed.

"Rachel, it's not that I don't want you," her mother attempted to reason, while not confident in her own defence. Why had she walked away from Rachel when she had worked so hard to get to her? What had she been afraid of? Was she so scared of failing at being a mother that she had quit before she tried?

Her daughter cut her off. "It doesn't matter anyway. I don't care if you didn't want me then. I don't care if you don't want me now. I'm still moving in."

"I beg your pardon?"

"You owe me, Shelby. Jesse told me everything."

"Everything?" Shelby could have sworn her heart stopped beating.

"The contract you signed me away with. The way you used Jesse to get to me. How you made him go back to Vocal Adrenaline at the critical time when it would hurt me and my glee club the most. Everything." Before Shelby could scrape together some kind of response to this bombshell, Rachel retrieved her calm and collected persona from her actor's bag of tricks and made her way to the bedroom door.

"Well, I suppose I should really unpack before my clothes start to wrinkle, folded as they are in my cases. I do hope that closet is a walk-in – I have quite a large collection of skirts and dresses."

"Rachel, wait." Shelby stood up, regarding her daughter with a kind of horrified fascination. "If you truly believe I am such a terrible person, that I don't even want you, then why on earth would you want to live with me?"

Rachel gave an almost imperceptible shrug. "Perhaps because I just walked out on my dads after the first fight we have ever had where I didn't put their hurt feelings before my own. Perhaps because even if you are a poor excuse for a mother, you still are my mother and I can't walk away from that as easily as you can. Or maybe I just consider it good training for when I am climbing that path that will eventually make me a shining star on Broadway. After all, if I give up each time I am rejected, how will I ever achieve my heart's desires?"

It was the last reason Rachel gave which would have seemed completely insane to anyone else (but made complete sense to her mother) that brought home to Shelby that this truly was her daughter. With that realisation, a tiny hope flickered that maybe sometimes second chances did come, even to people who didn't really deserve them. As she wandered into her kitchen, wearing that shell-shocked expression that people often wore after an encounter with Rachel Berry, she mused _I wonder if I have any honey and lemon tea in the cupboard._

**Not sure if I should continue this or leave it as a one-shot. I'll see what kind of response I get and then decide (hint, hint).**


	2. Chapter 2

**A.N. Thank you for all the reviews to my first chapter – after such a positive response I've decided I have to continue on with my little story. So here is the next chapter, filled with St Berry love. Yes, I ship St Berry. And Puckleberry. And even occasionally Finchel. I think my perfect story would be for Rachel and these three _fine_ boys to get shipwrecked on a desert island and make up their own rules. But until then and the complete moral decay of society, I give you this. **

"Not bad, guys. We've now moved from a performance that's as lifeless as a stuffed moose to as vibrant as a horse being led to the glue factory. Go help yourself to some barely legal performance enhancer and be back in 10. Jesse," Shelby called as her male lead turned to follow his compatriots, "A word, please."

Jesse walked down Carmel's auditorium aisle towards his director, wiping a hand towel over his sweaty forehead. If he felt any apprehension at his coach's summons, it did not show in his expression. He lifted one eyebrow in question as he stood before her. She stared impassively at him, waiting for him to fidget nervously, but when he held his ground Shelby switched tactics.

"Your footwork on that last turn was bordering on sloppy. Do I have to send you back to dance school to master a simple ball chain combo?"

Any other time Jesse would have either apologised for the rare imperfection or offered some valid excuse (in this case his partner was dyslexic under pressure and her confusion of left and right had pulled him slightly off course). Instead, he continued to regard her stoically, finally saying "Will that be all?"

"No, that's not all." Shelby growled, making an impatient hand gesture for him to take the seat next to her. "I thought you might be interested to hear that I had an unexpected visitor last night. Unexpected to me, that is. You, on the other hand, probably won't be that surprised."

"What are you talking about, Shelby?" Jesse said impatiently. "What, did some out of town relative show up on your doorstep? What has that to do with me?"

"She is my relative, although I don't know if Lima counts as out of town. And from what I can gather, your flapping jaw has a lot to do with it."

"Rachel?" Jesse guessed, his eyes wide with shock. "Rachel visited you?"

"More than visited. She's taken up residence – regardless of my consent, by the way."

"She's living with you? But, her dads – "

" – Aren't much help in this situation. I phoned Hiram last night since the last thing I needed was for him and Leroy to send a police squad to arrest me for kidnapping their precious daughter. He wasn't too happy with me. From what I can gather, somebody told Rachel about the terms of the surrogate contract her dads drew up for me to sign. From the ice in her father's voice, he thought that somebody was me."

Now at last Jesse's iron façade started to crack as he shifted on his seat. "Is that so bad? After all the lies and cover-ups, Rachel had a right to know the truth."

"Jack Nicholson was right about one thing – not everyone can handle the truth. Not when the truth makes her fathers look like selfish dictators who deliberately kept her mother away from her. She pretty much came out and said that to them, told them she didn't know if she'd be able to ever trust them again, packed up her skirts and animal sweaters and stormed out." Jesse turned pale as Shelby fixed him with her scariest glare. "So congratulations, Jesse. Not only did you break Rachel's heart, humiliate her before her peers and crush her glee club into dust, you have now driven a wedge between her and the only people in her life who have ever given her unconditional love. Bravo! Way to befriend."

"I never wanted to hurt her," Jesse said hotly, shaking his head. "I told you that."

"You told me a lot of things that don't line up with your actions. Top of the list is when you said you kind of liked her."

_Like? Try love_, Jesse thought bitterly. Although he had used the past tense of that word when he cracked an egg on Rachel's head on that never to be sufficiently regretted day in her school's car park, one look at her devastated face at Regionals had brought home to him that he was not out of those woods yet. In fact, his fondest wish was to build a little log cabin in those woods and convince his ex girlfriend to live in it with him. This was why he had followed her that day. He had only meant to plead his case and beg her forgiveness, but somehow one tear-filled look from those big brown eyes and the whole messy story was pouring out of him like he was on truth serum. Besides, there was a part of him that felt just as badly treated by Shelby as Rachel did; he had thought the one worthwhile thing to come out of this fucked-up situation would be that Rachel would have the mother she had longed for. Shelby had made all his heartache meaningless when she turned her back on this objective. So it did not seem to him any miscarriage of justice that Rachel learn he was not the only bad guy here. He never guessed his lapse into honesty would cost Rachel the most stable relationships in her life.

"So, what happens now?" Jesse asked. "Is she going to live with you?"

"Like I said, I don't really have a choice. She's camped out in my spare bedroom, taken possession of the spare key under the garden gnome and reprogrammed the Tivo to her favourite shows. She's probably out printing up change of address cards as we speak."

"Well, would it be so bad if she stayed with you awhile?" Jesse was trying to read Shelby. She seemed both frustrated yet reluctantly amused by her daughter's stubbornness.

"I just want what is best for her. Somehow I don't think destroying her relationship with her fathers falls in that category. Besides, there's her schooling to consider and - "

"You should let her stay," Jesse broke in, the words tumbling from his mouth without filter. "Give Rachel some credit – that girl has always known what she wants and been willing to do whatever it takes to get it. You should trust in that and feel privileged that she still wants to know you, after…"

"After what I did to her," Shelby finishes.

"What _we_ did," Jesse amends. "We both have some making up to do here."

"I'm not too sure how I feel about you renewing your 'friendship' with my daughter," Shelby said, giving Jesse a hard look. "Rachel mentioned how you led your team in throwing eggs at her. You're lucky I didn't find out about it before Regionals – you'd have been demoted to back-up dancer in a heartbeat."

"It wasn't my idea, I had to go along with it or I would have lost my status in the Club," Jesse protested hotly. Then he cast his eyes down in shame under Shelby's glare. "It seemed like a good reason to do it at the time."

Shelby sighed, knowing she was as much to blame as Jesse for that scene in the parking lot. The competitive spirit she fostered, the blind eye she turned to the annual 'funkification', had all led to her daughter running an 'egg gauntlet'. "Well, I guess you can get started making amends on Monday morning." Jesse raised his head hopefully as Shelby continued. "If Rachel is living with me, then she's no longer in the McKinley High school district. Which means I'll have to enrol her at Carmel." Shelby smirked as she looked down on an astonished Jesse St James. "Naturally, I am not comfortable with sending my daughter to a school where the students have assaulted her with food products – "

" – because that would be such a change from her old school," Jesse murmured sarcastically.

" - so I will need somebody to watch out for her. In fact, I will be making it a condition of allowing her to stay with me. So, what do you say, St James? Are you up for the challenge of protecting a girl against the pack of hyenas that is Vocal Adrenaline? Think before you answer, because I will hold you responsible if anything happens to her. If she comes home with so much as a chocolate chip in her hair I will come down on you like a New York Times critic on a Twilight movie."

Jesse jumped up from his seat, retrieving his patented "Jesse St James Ruler of the Universe" expression. "No problem. I can handle the bitches in VA. Rachel will be perfectly safe with me."

Shelby's smirk remained in place as she remembered the angry response she had received from her daughter yesterday when Jesse's name had come up in conversation. Trying to protect a girl who wished her protector would be eaten by a ferocious jungle animal would not be the cakewalk her star performer thought it would be.

But if anything it should be fun to watch.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

**A.N. I know I am completely awful when it comes to updating, leaving a story for so long you would think it is abandoned until one day I drag my lazy butt over to a computer and this happens. Anyhow, I hope you enjoy the chapter and know that I do intend to finish this – just probably not in a very speedy fashion.**

It had gotten to the point where not even Rachel was sure which of her actions were based on principle and which on blind stubbornness.

Usually she was a mild-tempered kind of girl (so long as no-one tried to take a solo from her). She knew her fellow glee-clubbers thought of her as a pushover, somebody who would take a thousand slights and put-downs and still show up for the next meeting with the same determined smile on her face. They thought of her the same way Catherine the Great thought of God – that she would forgive all because that was her business. Even Finn took her for granted. Actually, especially Finn.

But when Jesse had grabbed her arm as she was walking away from that awful interview with Shelby, it was like a spark was lit inside of her. Not an unprecedented reaction to this particular young man, except it was not a happy-pit-of-your-stomach firework kind of spark this time. As he stood before her in his bright pink shirt, his face still glistening from his performance of Bohemian Rhapsody which Rachel had a sinking feeling had just knocked them out of first place, a flame of rage grew inside her. She encouraged the feeling because it was so much better than the utter worthlessness she had felt when her mother had told her she wanted a family – just not with her.

"What do you want now, St James? Come to gloat about your team's chances or are you leading another chicken foetus massacre?" She looked around the hallway, as though searching for any concealed Vocal Adrenalites.

"No, Rachel, I just wanted to say… you were really great out there today," Jesse finished lamely. "I mean, the dancing was sub par but your vocals were flawless."

"Oh, so my singing didn't lack emotional depth this time? I guess that was because I was singing a love song to Finn," Rachel replied hurtfully. She found a twisted pleasure in the pain that crossed Jesse's face before his eyes narrowed.

"I don't believe you mean that."

"Oh, I mean it." The nerve of him not believing her lie. Rachel's irritation mushroomed into anger when that superior smirk appeared on his face.

"Nice try, Rach. You're going to need to brush up on your acting skills if you want to make it to Broadway."

"I'll have you know my acting skills have been highly acclaimed," Rachel replied hotly, and then could have kicked herself for what she had just implied. Then she wanted to kick Jesse when he laughed at her slip up. He held up his hands in a peace keeping gesture at her threatening scowl.

"Rachel, I'm not here to pick a fight with you. I couldn't talk to you before the competition because as captain of Vocal Adrenaline, it would have been disloyal to my team. Just as it would have hurt your leadership of New Directions if you had talked to the enemy. But now it's all done – win or lose, there's no more conflict of interest between us. So now I can finally tell you that… I am so sorry." Jesse drew one step nearer. He felt a painful burn in his throat at the sight of tears dewing her eyes. "I never wanted you to get hurt, I swear."

Rachel looked incredulous. "In what alternate reality would I not get hurt by you pretending to care about me and then publicly desert me just so you and your squadron of robots could win another stupid trophy? I mean, I'm flattered that you were so threatened by my talent that it took a full scale attack from VA's top singer, but I find myself curious as to how you failed to foresee I would not be unaffected by your heartless deception."

"Yes, I lied to you. I promised you I would never hurt you and then I did just that. But I never counted on having real feelings for you – although every romantic comedy ever filmed should have warned me. But even if you did get a little banged-up from the outcome, I figured it would be worth it because you might have lost a boyfriend but at least you'd gained a mother."

"What?" Rachel squeaked. "You knew about my – Shelby?"

"Of course." Rachel was obviously shell-shocked from this revelation – her olive skin paled to white, Jesse observed with concern. "Are you OK? How about we go to the hotel café and talk about this over coffee? I hear they make a mean chai latte…"

"How long have you known?" Rachel interrupted, shaking off Jesse's hand.

"Uh.. from the beginning," Jesse admitted, a frisson of apprehension shaking up his spinal cord at the look in her eyes. "Look, Rachel, maybe you should talk this over with Shelby. She was so desperate to meet you, I can't believe she's totally changed her mind. Maybe she just needs more time to come to grips with this – "

"Oh, she still wants a child. She just doesn't want me. She told me that 10 minutes ago when I suggested she could be a mentor to me, since she's not ready to be a mother. I figured half a loaf is better than none. But she made it quite clear that although she is aching for a family she wants no role in my life. Then after I asked her, she told me that she can't do this anymore, like I've been sitting on her doorstep begging for her favours. And I could accept all that when I thought I'd just stumbled into her life by accident, that I took her by surprise. But now you're telling me that she wanted to find me? That she went to the extreme length of making her student seduce her own daughter just for the opportunity? And after all that effort and months of planning as soon as she meets me she wants to back out?" Rachel clenched her fists until the knuckles went white, pacing the corridor up and down as an outlet for her rage. She stopped and turned to Jesse with a puzzled face. "But why did she use you, Jesse? Why didn't she just approach me directly?"

"Well, you see, there was this contract…"

So then the whole story of the contract came out. If it was a shock to find out her mother had gone to such Machiavellian lengths to contact her daughter, that was nothing compared to the discovery that her two fathers that she had loved and trusted implicitly all her life had been the original authors of this heartbreak. She had always assumed that the zero presence of a maternal figure in her life was her mother's choice, and don't think that had no part to play in her insecurities. For surely if her mother had wanted to be a part of her life her loving fathers who lived to give her everything she could possibly want would have done whatever they could to facilitate the mother-daughter relationship. Only now she finds out they were the ones who had decreed that she would live with this gaping hole in her life that set her apart from all the other children and made her feel like an unlovable freak. It was too much for the petite singer and as she walked abruptly away from Jesse, all she wanted was to be alone in her bedroom singing angry Alanis Morrisett songs until she was hoarse. But then Finn came looking for her, just returned from the hospital.

"They're going to announce the winners, Rachel. Come on, let's get on stage. How were Vocal Adrenaline, did they stink?"

Not trusting herself to speak, Rachel shook her head. What followed after was like a really bad dream… _And now, your 2010 Regionals show choir champions – Vocal Adrenaline! "We didn't even place." _

On the bus ride home the depression had been so thick in the air you could taste it. She had sat next to Finn but there was no more talk of love from him; he seemed to have completely forgotten the admission he had made in the wings before their performance just hours before, as though such happy subjects had no place in this new grey world. He did not hold her hand or even look at her, and when Kurt and Mercedes, who were sitting just behind them, muttered quite audibly that their loss that day probably had something to do with the various spanners one Jesse St James had been throwing into their works for the last semester thanks to one know-it-all diva, he said nothing in her defence, though she knew he heard them from the way his jaw tightened.

Once again, Rachel was alone.

GLEE / GLEE / GLEE / GLEE / GLEE / GLEE / GLEE / GLEE / GLEE / GLEE /

"Princess, we only did what was best for you," Hiram Berry insisted, hovering in impotent concern over his distraught daughter. He looked imploringly towards his partner. "Leroy, you're the lawyer – explain this to our baby girl."

Rachel rolled her eyes as she heard her dark skinned father clear his throat pompously, not that they could see her do this as her head was sprawled face down on the kitchen table. Sure enough Leroy Berry outlined why excluding Shelby from Rachel's life until she turned 18 was the only rational choice, speaking as though his daughter were a simple juror, needing to be pointed down the right path. He detailed in elegant diction how from the beginning Shelby had not wanted an emotional involvement, that a mother obsessed with making her mark in show business would have been an unstable parent figure for her anyway, that she already had two parents and why would she need a third? The list was long and compelling but the only thought running through Rachel's mind was _they kept_ _my mother away from me._ That seemed a crime for which there was no excuse. From what Jesse had told her, Shelby had been missing her daughter for a long time. How would things have been different if there had been no legal deterrent to keep her away?

"I can't be here now," Rachel muttered as she scraped her chair backwards.

"Where are you going," Leroy demanded but his daughter did not answer, only continued to walk out of the kitchen and up the stairs to her bedroom.

"Let her cool down," Hiram said, putting a calming hand on his partner's shoulder. "A good night's sleep and a couple of Streisand musicals and she'll be over this in no time."

"Hiram…"

"Yes?"

"We did the right thing, didn't we?" For the first time uncertainty coloured his voice. "With Shelby and the contract."

"We thought we did," Hiram replied with a sigh. "In the end, there's not much more a person can say for themself."

"She was always meant to be our little girl," Leroy argued, as one who is trying to convince himself. "That was the agreement from the start. You can't just back out of an agreement."

Hiram smiled fondly at his husband. "Always the lawyer. Come on, it's getting late and you have to be up early tomorrow to prepare for court."

So it was that they were both soundly asleep by the time their daughter had walked out their front door, dragging her pink trolley bag behind her after leaving a neatly lettered explanation propped up on the hall table.

GLEE / GLEE / GLEE / GLEE / GLEE / GLEE / GLEE / GLEE / GLEE / GLEE /

Her first day in her mother's house was an unnerving one for the small diva. She did her best to hide her tension from Shelby, maintaining the illusion of being completely confident in all her decisions. It was a poker bluff, of course, trying to convince her mother that she was so fixed in her intentions that they could not be overturned. Only after Shelby left for school, giving Rachel her permission to remain in her house – for now – did she draw a long breath.

The truth was she was not sure of anything and certainly had no clear plan. As usual, she reacted to a stimulus – in this case, finding out about her parents' deception – and that had prodded her into leaping where she did not look. Yet as she explored her mother's house, turning through photo albums, noting the family resemblances (it appears her nose goes back five generations), she could not regret being here. Even if this ended badly, she knew she would regret it more if she gave up so quickly on her dream of having a mother.

Shelby had told her that she had spoken to the Fathers Berry that morning but, aside from a few cutting remarks and vague legal threats made towards her mother, they had not indicated their next action. Rachel was in equal measure glad and upset that they were not pounding on the door first thing that morning demanding Rachel's immediate return. Then again, their policy for when she was upset had always been to back away until she had drunk her water, wiped away her tears and put her stage smile back on. Then they would just carry on like nothing had ever happened.

Of course, having your fifteen year old daughter run away from home would be a little harder to sweep under the rug.

Her mother came home in the late afternoon to a house rich with competing aromas of freshly baked cookies, muffins and date scones. She found her offspring in the kitchen dashing around pulling baked goods from her oven as she stirred chocolate ganache in a small saucepan and belted out Adele's latest hit which only she could hear through her ipod. She almost dropped the tray when Shelby pulled out one of her earbuds to get her attention.

"You never told me you're a teenage Betty Crocker," Shelby said as she bit into a chocolate fudge cookie. Her face instantly morphed into an expression of orgasmic delight. "God, that's good!"

"I think you're only supposed to say that about my meat pies," Rachel replied, wiping sticky hands on her apron. Shelby looked nonplussed for a moment before recognising the reference.

"Sweeney Todd," she acknowledged with a smirk. "Hopefully your pies are free of human flesh?"

"Of course," Rachel answered, pleased Shelby had picked up on the Broadway joke so easily. "I am a vegan."

Shelby laughed, but then put on her purely-business face. "OK, Rachel, I think the time has come for a serious discussion about your living situation." She gracefully sat on a straight backed kitchen chair and motioned for her daughter to do the same. "Are you still determined to stay with me?"

Rachel nodded tersely, trying to match Shelby's poker face. "I am."

Her mother held the tense silence, waiting for her daughter to blink first, before finally saying, "There will be some conditions."

Rachel released the breath she had been holding, a tremulous smile breaking across her face. She tried to concentrate on listening to the various rules and conditions her mother was laying out, nodding her head when it seemed called for, but all the time her heart was beating in a fortissimo rhythm _I can stay, I can stay, I can stay._

At last she has a mother.

**A.N. Next chapter Rachel will find out Jesse is part of those conditions – sparks will be a-flyin'!**


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

**A.N. You must admit I'm improving – a much shorter waiting period for this chapter and I think the next will be even sooner. Now if you, like Jesse after kissing Rachel, "have some notes", please do not be shy to review.**

"What are you doing here?"

Jesse gave her his I'm-the-most-charming-person-in-the-universe smile. "This is what I love about you, Rachel - your firm grasp of the social graces." He held out a Starbucks cup to her. "Soy Chai Latte sprinkled with cinnamon and ginger?"

Rachel eyed the cup suspiciously for a while before accepting it from him. "Whilst I am appreciative of this token gesture of peacemaking or whatever it is you are trying to accomplish here, I am afraid I do not have time to analyse your hidden agenda of the day as I do not wish to be late for my first day at Carmel. As you know, punctuality is very important to a star in the making as it gives others the illusion that you consider their time as valuable as your own."

Jesse kept his expression serious, although his mouth did twitch upwards. "Not that it is, of course."

Rachel huffed and tried to walk around him but he stepped in her way. "Good morning, Shelby," he called over her shoulder. His coach nodded her head in his direction as she locked her front door, juggling her shoulder bag and a large folder of sheet music.

"What brings you here, St James?" she asked.

_Playing dumb, are we? I guess our little protection arrangement is the hidden agenda of the day._ Aloud, all Jesse said was, "I have come to offer your daughter an escort to school."

"I've already got a ride," Rachel interrupted, dodging around Jesse towards Shelby's Range Rover. "I'm going with Shelby."

"I think walking into a strange school with your mother who also happens to be a teacher will create a more negative first impression than poor punctuality," Jesse pointed out. "Whereas if you walk in with me, the leader of the most powerful clique in the student body, no one will be able to touch you."

"Jesse is right, Rachel," Shelby said, forestalling Rachel's inevitable mutinous outburst. "If you recall, I mentioned last night that I would have one of my students take you under their wing while you settle in at Carmel."

Rachel did not recall, as she had been too excited to listen closely to Shelby's conditions last night, but she is sure she would have remembered Jesse's name coming up. Shelby ignored the exaggerated expression of betrayal on her drama queen daughter's face and calmly hopped into her car, throwing a little wave in Rachel's direction as she drove off.

"Your chariot awaits, ma cherie," Jesse drawled, offering his arm. Rachel reluctantly took it but then remembered she had left something behind.

"Oh, my trolley bag, I left it inside," Rachel cried, turning back to the house but Jesse tugged her towards his car. "Jesse, I have to go back for it – it has my spare change of clothes."

Jesse threw back his head and laughed. "Rachel, I promise you, you won't be needing a post-slushie outfit anymore."

GLEE / GLEE / GLEE / GLEE / GLEE / GLEE / GLEE / GLEE / GLEE / GLEE /

Rachel was half hoping nobody would take any notice of her arrival in Jesse's red sports car (which she recognised from when they shot the 'Run Joey Run' clip), if for no other reason than to wipe the overconfident smirk off her ex's face. But it was as he predicted; when he strode through the hallways, as close to her side as she would allow him, the students parted before them with expressions of awe and envy. The looks sent her way were mainly curious or, in the case of the girls, outright jealousy. Rachel noticed a couple of the Vocal Adrenaline kids that had egged her; they seemed shocked to find her haunting their home turf like some kind of Banquo's ghost. One look at their lead singer's face made them abandon any impulse to confront their funkification victim and they hurriedly turned tail, walking in the opposite direction.

"OK, here is your class schedule," Jesse said as he turned away from the administration counter, but not before shining his charming smile at the helpful faculty clerk. "They've matched it as closely as possible to your old schedule that was sent over from McKinley."

Mention of her former school made Rachel suddenly realise that in all the recent upheaval she had forgotten to alert her friends (or pseudo-friends, in most cases) of her transfer. As usual, Jesse took one look at her face and read her mind.

"You haven't told them about the transfer, I take it?"

"It may have slipped my mind," she admitted.

"So, what do you think their reactions will be to you jumping ship to the school that just kicked their asses at Regionals?"

"I'm sure they will trust that my reasons are valid and have nothing to do with them or my loyalty to the glee club," Rachel said firmly.

"Do you really believe that?" Jesse asked, steering her towards her first class.

"Of course." Rachel bit her lip as she thought this over. "But just in case they don't, if any of them calls you then as far as you know I've been recruited by a West End theatre company and am currently en route to London to star in a revival of Seven Brides for Seven Brothers."

Jesse laughed, a sound which seemed to startle the passing students, as though displaying ordinary human emotions was an unexpected trend for Jesse St James. "Your secret is safe with me, Milly. I'll see you at lunch."

As they stood at the door of her first period English class, Rachel murmured her thanks as she took her books back from him, stepped forward but then turned back and quickly leaned up and pecked his cheek, much to Jesse's surprise.

"What was that for?" he wondered as his fingers traced where her lips had brushed.

Rachel gave him an isn't-it-obvious smile. "For assuming I would be given the lead role." Then with a flick of her short skirt she was gone.

Jesse stood there bemused for a few seconds, until some impatient sophomore told him to quit blocking the doorway and move already. Only after he had reduced the impertinent lout to a babbling mess of apologies with a single raised eyebrow did Jesse walk away.

Meanwhile, Rachel looked nervously around the classroom for an empty seat and saw one next to a fresh faced girl with black hair that had one streak of pure white running through it. The girl looked up from whatever game she was playing on her Iphone and noticed Rachel. Then something happened that had never happened at McKinley. Instead of a look of contempt or derision, the girl gave her a welcoming smile and motioned to the seat next to her. After recovering from her moment of amazement, Rachel quickly took the seat before the offer could be withdrawn.

"Hi, I'm guessin' you must be new here," the girl said, her accent holding a southern lilt. "I'm Marcie Calhoun."

"Rachel Berry," Rachel replied with her blinding smile. "This is my first day, actually."

"The first day is always the worst," Marcie replied with a sympathetic smile. "I've only been here a few weeks myself. Moved here from Tennessee when my dad's firm transferred him to Akron."

"If you have not yet finalised all your social alliances I would be very happy to fill any friendship positions you have open," Rachel said hopefully.

"You talk a whole new kind of strange," Marcie said, eyeing Rachel speculatively. "I like it."

Rachel released the breath she had been holding with relief. "Thank Barbara," she sighed. "I was afraid my unwitting habit of distancing prospective friends had followed me here."

"Oh, I don't think you have to worry about being unpopular," Marcie replied with a little laugh. "Not so long as you have the great Jesse St James dripping off your arm. I haven't been here long but even I know that boy is a legend in this place."

"So he tells me," Rachel said, rolling her eyes. "I was hoping it was an in-his-own-mind variety but from the reactions I've seen, I guess not."

"Sounds like you ain't part of his fan club," Marcie noted with amusement.

Rachel shrugged. "I cancelled my membership recently." At a curious look from her new friend, she reluctantly admitted, "He's my ex-boyfriend."

"Is that what you're calling it," a dark skinned girl sniped as she walked past the girls' desk. Rachel recognised her as the Vocal Adrenaline dancer that had been draped over Jesse during 'Another One Bites the Dust'. "Where I come from, he'd be known as the guy who made a fool of you."

"Lay off, dance hag," Marcie snarled.

"Gladly, Bride of Frankenstein," she returned, taking her seat.

"I swear, if she makes one more smartass comment about my hair, I'm going to rip her dreadlocks out." Rachel looked at her new friend with wide eyes. "And before you ask, I did not dye it like this, the white streak is genetic."

"I like it," Rachel said decidedly. "There was a girl at my old school who used to dye streaks of colour into her hair. I think, because she was too shy to speak out, she wanted to have some other way of expressing herself. But you don't have to bother with fake colours to make yourself unique – it's already a part of you."

"You're damn right I'm unique," Marcie agreed with a grin. "If I'm gonna bring Hollywood to its knees, then I better be the genuine article."

"You have acting ambitions?" Rachel asked eagerly.

"Sure thing. You're looking at the next Renee Zellweiger. Sure, she was a Texan but it's close enough."

"I am an actress as well, although my sights are set on Broadway rather than cinema. Singing, dancing and acting – I'm a triple threat."

"You know, our drama club – I'm a member – we're putting on a musical this term. Could be a good place for you to put your triple threat into action."

"Sounds promising," Rachel replied. "Fill me in on the details later?"

Marcie lowered her voice as their teacher rushed in, making a late entrance. "Meet us for lunch in the quad."

As the teacher called for silence, Rachel briefly wondered who "us" was.

GLEE / GLEE / GLEE / GLEE / GLEE / GLEE / GLEE / GLEE / GLEE / GLEE /

"Rachel Berry, I give you… the Dramagiks!"

Rachel looked at the three boys and 2 girls with bemusement. _Drama-whatsits?_

The morning had passed quickly for Rachel, as she absorbed her new environment which included a style of teaching that was a step up from the mostly apathetic routine of McKinley High teachers. At Carmel, the teachers encouraged student involvement and Rachel found for once hers was not the most frequent hand in the air, ready with the answer.

Marcie had shared her fourth period history class and, after a quick pit stop to select a vegan friendly lunch (thankfully the Carmel High School was a convert to the Jamie Oliver food revolution and stocked their cafeteria with healthy and delicious food), had rushed her new friend to the student quad to introduce her to the motley selection of teens that formed Carmel's Drama Club.

"The name is a cross between drama-geeks and dramatics," A silver blonde girl explained proudly. "Clever, huh? My own invention – I'm creative that way. I'm Petra, by the way. This is Tim – " a boy with lanky brown hair and an aquiline nose raised a hand in greeting, "that's Donna – " a girl with curly red hair and freckles nodded, as though agreeing with her name, "over here is Scott – " a dramatically handsome boy in the starving poet manner waved a weary hand her way, "and lastly we have Ahmed." An Arab looking boy looked up from the guitar he was strumming and smiled and nodded enthusiastically at Rachel. "He doesn't speak much English and he may not even know what a drama club is but he is a treasure whenever we need a dark and mysterious stranger in the production. Or just to fetch us snacks. And of course you've met Marcie. So now, tell us about you – who _is _Rachel Berry?"

That was the ultimate leading question for a girl like Rachel. The next fifteen minutes was spent with Rachel giving the condensed version of her life including her extensive vocal, dance and acting training, the talent competitions and beauty pageants she had won, the community theatre productions she had starred in, finishing up by treating them to her most successful Myspace music videos on Marcie's Iphone. By the time she took a full breath again, she had achieved her objective to impress. Marcie looked around at her friends and shared a look of agreement.

"Well, Rachel Berry, looks like this little club of ours is interested in buyin' what you're sellin'. So what do you say; think you're Dramagik material?"

Before she could reply, an arm had slid around her waist and the owner of that arm was speaking for her.

"Nice try, Drama Geeks," Jesse said, more than a hint of steel in his usual soft speaking voice. "But you're poaching on Vocal Adrenaline territory." Rachel drew her brows together as she looked up at Jesse, fighting the distraction of his enchanting designer cologne.

"Jesse, I do not appreciate being likened to property," she said sternly. "These are my friends and you will speak to them with respect."

"I don't suppose your new _friends_ happened to mention that drama club and glee club are arch enemies at Carmel," Jesse glowered at the six teenagers who returned his glare with interest. "I didn't pull you out of that Hellhole at McKinley to have you get caught in a whole new crossfire."

"How can your clubs be at odds?" Rachel asked, puzzled. "I mean, it's not like the jocks and the gleeks, who have such different mindsets. We're all performers here – aren't we?"

"If you can call what they do performing," Jesse scoffed. "They don't have a decent singer in their whole club. Their version of Mama Mia last spring – it was even worse singing than in the movie."

Rachel paled at the thought. "Jesse, surely you exaggerate? Is that even possible?"

"Somehow, they made it so," he assured her. "Show choir is where you belong, Rach, not with these wannabe players."

"Show choir! Entertainment for cruise ships and Vegas night clubs! If you're serious about Broadway, Rachel, you need to keep your acting skills sharp," Petra argued. "If you join us, your talents will get the full workout."

"Let them have her, Jesse," a new voice broke into the discussion; Rachel recognised the VA girl from first period. "It's not like there's any way she's getting into Vocal Adrenaline. These losers would be the perfect fit for her."

"Back off, Giselle," Jesse said warningly, pulling Rachel slightly closer to him. Rachel felt a little fearful as ten more Vocal Adrenalites circled her and the Dramagiks, prompting flashbacks to that scene in the carpark. Giselle picked up on her thoughts and smiled cruelly.

"What's the matter, Berry? Wondering where the eggs are? We weren't expecting you to have the nerve to show up at _our_ school today but we'll give you a proper welcome tomorrow. Sunny side up."

"The hell you will!" Jesse flashed angry glances at his teammates, trying to cow them into submission; most of them were just interested spectators, waiting to see who won this battle of wills before choosing sides. But there were three girls in the ranks, victims of his old love-'em-and-leave-'em policy, who were more than happy to back their female lead vocal against this girl who had meant more to Jesse St James than they ever could. For the first time, he doubted his power to control this club and wondered if his promise that Rachel would not need spare clothing at Carmel was somewhat rash. But you would never guess he had misgivings as he threatened, "Any of you try anything, I guarantee you won't like the consequences."

"Oh, what is she going to do, run crying to Mommy?" said a sneering blonde beauty that Jesse had promised to call but never did. "Is that your style, little girl? You need someone strong to fight your battles for you?"

"This one could never be in Vocal Adrenaline," a Latino girl, who reminded Rachel of Santana, sneered. "No guts. And, as we all know from Regionals, can't even sing at our level. We don't need any last place losers here at Carmel."

"Face it, Berry, you were better off at McKinley," Giselle said. "You should run back to them while you still can."

"SHUT IT!" Rachel yelled, at her full powerhouse volume. The entire student quad went quiet, over 200 students turning towards this new spectacle. Rachel walked up to Giselle and looked her unflinchingly in the eye. In a deadly quiet voice that somehow everybody was still able to hear, she said 6 short words that prompted a collective gasp of shock.

"Sing off. In the quad. Now!"

**DUN DUN DUN! How's that for a cliffhanger?**


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

**A.N. Is there any point in apologising for the lateness of this update after I said in the last chapter that I would be quicker to update? I thought I would be but then my brain just had a word blockage and I could not get any writing done – I think I may be cerebrally constipated (I just invented a new medical condition!) Anyhow, I hope you enjoy. I tried to put more Shelby into this chapter because I know the previous one was lacking and there will be much more in the next. My profound thanks to everyone who has reviewed so far – even though I'm not much use when it comes to replying to reviewers, I do appreciate everyone who makes the effort.**

"Sing off. In the quad. Now!"

"Oh, you're on," Giselle smugly agreed to Rachel's demand. "Although I doubt you came prepared; here at Carmel we are trained to perform at a moment's notice." She clicked her fingers towards a bunch of students in the quad. Just like at McKinley, there were plenty of young musicians scattered in the crowd strumming their instruments. As soon as word of the impromptu sing-off circulated, they immediately came to the fore, ready to be of service.

"I am always prepared," Rachel replied icily. Turning towards the make-shift band, she asked "Are you familiar with that incomparable musical, Funny Girl?"

Before Rachel could instruct them to play some Streisand Broadway ear-blaster, Giselle said, "No dice, Berry. Since you were the challenger in this vocal duel, by tradition I have the right to choose my weapon – or genre, as the case may be. And I choose…" Giselle drew out the suspense, smirking gleefully at her preppy-looking rival, "…rock."

"Rock?" Rachel wrinkled her nose.

"And not any of your classic mellow Journey pap – hard rock."

"Surely you must admit that any true diva sing-off should be drawn from the Broadway catalogue!"

"Out of your depth, Berry Long-Stocking?" Giselle mocked. "Welcome to Carmel; the stakes are higher and your attitude counts as much as your voice if you want to sit in at our table."

"Fine. Hard rock it is. But please, not Queen again – you guys have kind of beaten that horse to death."

"Oh, I think we can turn up the heat from Jesse's go-to fave. You boys up for a little G & R action?" she called to the student musicians. "Hit it!" Immediately the sound of electric guitars split the air.

_**Welcome to the jungle  
We got fun 'n' games  
We got everything you want  
Honey we know the names  
We are the people that can find  
Whatever you may need  
If you got the money honey  
We got your disease  
**_  
_**In the jungle  
Welcome to the jungle  
Watch it bring you to your shun n,n,n,n,,n,n,,n,n,n,,n,n,,n knees, knees  
I wanna watch you bleed  
**_

Giselle knew how to work a crowd, Rachel had to admit, dancing provocatively among the male Carmelites. There was practically a river of drool following her path. But she pretty much kept eye contact with Rachel throughout, driving home the fact that this was a message meant for her._****_

Welcome to the jungle  
We take it day by day  
If you want it you're gonna bleed  
But it's the price you pay  
And you're a very sexy girl  
That's very hard to please  
You can taste the bright lights  
But you won't get them for free  
In the jungle  
Welcome to the jungle

The derisive curl to her lips as she sang the 'sexy girl' line made her sarcastic intent clear, causing Rachel to feel self-conscious of her knee socks and argyle sweater-vest. Giselle was right about one thing, if she was going to win this thing she would need an attitude adjustment. She turned to her newest friend, who favoured a punk '60's biker's look, and asked "Marcie, what size shoe do you wear?"

_**Welcome to the jungle  
It gets worse here everyday  
Ya learn ta live like an animal  
In the jungle where we play  
If you got a hunger for what you see  
You'll take it eventually  
You can have anything you want  
But you better not take it from me**_

Jesse caught the special emphasis Giselle placed on that last line and wondered if she was singing about her place in VA or her place as his partner. There had been a time when he had encouraged her freshman year crush, thinking it would give added power to their duets to have the lead female infatuated with him. Then she became territorial of every girl he paid attention to, so that idea was a wash. Considering the deadly laser eyes Giselle was giving his ex, time and distance had not softened her.

As Giselle finished her song to tumultuous applause, Jesse was pulled out of his reverie to realise Rachel was no longer standing beside him. In fact, she was not in his sight at all and he wondered for a bad moment if Giselle's performance had intimidated her and she had slunk away. Then he shook his head at the complete unlikelihood of such an occurrence; one thing Rachel had complete confidence in was her ability to put on a show-stopping performance.

"Rachel Berry, where are you hiding at?" Giselle called out mockingly as she looked around for the small diva. "Looks like I scared her off, Cara."

"Yeah, you better run," her Latino friend called out and then high-fived Giselle.

But then the small group of Dramagiks parted to reveal a Rachel Berry that no-one there had ever met, including the boy she had dated for 3 months. The sweater vest had been replaced by a black leather jacket and her prim white shirt seemed to be missing a few buttons. Her headband was gone, her once smooth hair artfully mussed and falling in waves over her shoulders. Her demure little skirt had been tugged down a few inches so that it rested on her hips, revealing a strip of smooth honey-coloured skin above. But the most effective style alteration were those black leather boots shooting up her shapely calves and giving her entire outfit the upgrade from hot to incendiary. If Jesse had had eyes for anyone but the smoking brunette striding past him, he might have noticed that Marcie was suddenly wearing saddle shoes and a sweater vest.

The only one not impressed by the transformation was Giselle. "So, you're still here?" she sneered. "I think I would have had more respect for your intelligence if you _had_ run away."

"How could I leave before responding to your _welcome_?" Rachel replied. "It would have been impolite." Rachel nodded at Ahmed who immediately launched into a tense acoustic intro before the other guitarists took his lead. Fixing her eyes on Giselle, Rachel sang in a low but clear voice

_**To this world I'm unimportant  
Just because I have nothing to give  
So you call this your free country  
Tell me why it costs so much to live  
Tell me why and**_

_**This world can turn me down  
But I won't turn away, oh no  
I won't turn around  
**_

Rachel circled Giselle and her three 'henchgirls' like an angry jungle cat, while the girls feigned boredom. Not so the crowd; at Carmel they were trained to identify fine voices and good stage presence and it seemed this new girl was worthy of their attention.

_**All my work and endless measures  
Never seem to get me very far  
Walk a mile just to move an inch now  
Even though I'm trying so damn hard  
I'm trying so hard  
**_

_**This world can turn me down but I  
Won't turn away  
And I won't duck and run, cause  
I'm not built that way  
When everything is gone there is  
Nothing there to fear  
This world cannot bring me down  
No cause I'm already here!  
**_

Her eyes shifted from the girls towards the crowd, throwing her incredible voice into the next lines in strident appeal.

_**I am already here,  
Down on my knees  
I am already here, oh no, I am  
Already here  
I must have told you a thousand times,  
I'm not running away  
**_

Rachel sang a song Jesse would never have picked as one to showcase a singer's vocal range, but with an ingenuity he had to respect, she had turned it into one. The applause was deafening as she stood panting before the crowd of students, a little shaky as though all of her energy had been discharged through her music. Jesse noted that even the VA kids, not including his bitter exes, were applauding and catcalling. Before he could sweep Rachel up in his arms, her new friends beat him to it, the Dramagiks praising her performance as Marcie insisted that she take Rachel shopping after school for her own knee high boots because she totally rocked that look.

And then the cheering and laughter was smothered in an instant, the way only an exceptionally feared teacher can accomplish. This was how Jesse knew Shelby was standing behind him.

"In case you people need your hearing checked, the warning bell has sounded," Shelby stated with cool authority. "Are you waiting for an engraved invitation? I suggest you make your way to class. Now!" At once the teenagers swarmed towards the school buildings. "Jesse, Rachel; walk with me."

After hastily swapping clothes and footwear with Marcie, Rachel fell into step beside Shelby, a little confused whether she would be talking to her mother or her teacher. She supposed if she was going to be a student at Carmel she would have to get used to that double identity. Then Shelby gave her a warm smile that made her heart flutter, touching the little girl inside her that was desperate for her mother's approval.

"I caught part of your impromptu performance from the teacher's lounge, all of 300 feet away – well done on your projection, by the way. Strange, I would not have pegged you as a Three Doors Down fan."

"I guess we still have a lot to learn about each other," Rachel said breathlessly.

Shelby frowned. "My one criticism would be that you invested too much of yourself in the performance; by failing to disconnect your emotions from the song you have exhausted yourself. If you were called upon for an encore, you would have nothing to offer."

Rachel bristled at the criticism, always defensive about her art. "I disagree! A diva needs to throw everything she has into a performance. And I am not exhausted – I have amazing stamina and breath control!"

"I can testify to that," Jesse added. At the way Shelby whipped accusing eyes at him, he hastily added "from singing with her!"

Shelby fixed her daughter and protégé with an assessing eye and then nodded her head. "Prove it."

Rachel and Jesse looked at each other and then at Shelby. "What? Here in the school hallway?"

"No," Shelby said, pushing open two double doors. "Here in the school auditorium." Rachel looked around the cavernous room in awe; it was more than twice the size of the McKinley auditorium and more expensively outfitted. And that stage, so wide and inviting … it beckoned to her irresistibly.

"It occurs to me that I have never heard you two sing together. So now you get to kill two birds with one stone by proving your own point and satisfying my curiosity. That is, unless you are too tired from your last show."

"What about music?" Jesse asked.

"True divas don't need music. They make their own." Shelby fought back her smile as she saw the reckless gleam in her daughter's eye, trying to keep her director's mask in place. "So run up to that stage double time – enough so you're a little out of breath – and then show me what you've got."

Rachel grabbed Jesse's hand, catching him off guard, and yanked him after her as she ran the distance up to the stage. By the time they were standing before the blazing lights they were both breathing hard, part exertion and the other part excitement. It had been too long since they had last sung together.

"What do you want to sing, Rach? We always kill with 'Hello'" her partner suggested. She had forgotten to let go of his hand, and he tugged her slightly towards him.

"'Hello' is a love song," Rachel pointed out, taking a step back and letting go of his hand.

"So?" Jesse replied, frowning at her tone.

"So, you don't crack an egg on a girl's head one week and then sing a love song to her the next," Rachel explained, becoming increasingly angrier at his glossing over of the way he had broken her heart. She felt like his behaviour towards her that day did not properly acknowledge the deep remorse he should be expressing with ever second sentence.

"We're back to that? I told you I was sorry, and an apology from me is as rare as Haley's comet. Why can't we just put that stupid incident behind us?"

"Because I loved you, you conceited idiot, and you broke my heart!" Rachel cried, remembering the feeling of hurt and betrayal when Jesse had stood there, smirking malevolently while his team mates pelted her with eggs (she did not see the smirk turn into sad regret because she was shielding her face with her hands at that time). She thought of the nights she had cried herself to sleep, the many times the Glee Club had pitied or mocked her for being foolish enough to believe he could have loved her. All the hurt that had been swept aside by the distracting events of the day came rushing back.

"Do you think you never broke mine?" Jesse replied, matching her anger. "Do the words 'Run, Joey, Run' mean anything to you?"

"That is not the same thing and you know it!"

"I think it's exact – "

"Guys, I haven't got all day here," Shelby called out from her director's seat. "Are you two going to sing or fight?"

"Sorry, Coach, we're just trying to decide on a song," Jesse called back, embarrassed to be caught in an unprofessional moment whilst on stage.

"Actually, the song just chose itself," Rachel called back. In a quiet aside to Jesse, she hissed, "Sing or fight? Why not both?" Taking a deep breath she began,

_**There's a fire starting in my heart**_

_**Reaching a fever pitch and it's bringing me out the dark**_

Rolling his eyes, Jesse sang the next stanza with an emotion that matched hers.

_**Finally I can see you crystal clear**_

_**Go ahead and sell me out and I'll lay your shit bare**_

_**See how I leave with every piece of you**_

_**Don't underestimate the things that I will do**_

_**There's a fire starting in my heart**_

_**Reaching a fever pitch and its bringing me out the dark**_

_**The scars of your love remind me of us**_

_**They keep me thinking that we almost had it all**_

_**The scars of your love they leave me breathless**_

_**I can't help feeling**_

Their voices duelled together in the chorus, angry accusation pulsing in each word.

_**We could have had it all**_

_**Rolling in the deep**_

_**You had my heart and soul in your hand**_

_**And you played it to the beat**_

As Jesse and Rachel threw the next lines of the song at each other in a vocal sparring match, Shelby was busy trying to control her rising excitement. She had been a music teacher for 10 years and had coached a winning show choir for 8 of those years. In all that time she had mentored some extremely talented kids and seen even more in competition from other schools, but none of those young performers had the kind of star quality Jesse St James exuded and Shelby had counted herself lucky to have coached one such performer in her career. To have discovered two was unheard of, especially when those two shared a musical chemistry that made the air around them electric. As they circled each other on the stage, Shelby thought wryly that maybe an excess of emotion was not such a bad thing in a performance for she had never felt the meaning of this song so poignantly before.

An observer of Shelby's thoughts may have thought it unfeeling of her to be caught up in the performance aspect more than the fact that there was obviously hurt feelings between her daughter and the boy she had set her up with, but she had been a show choir director a lot longer than she had been a practising mother. As she had once told Will Schuester, it was hard to separate glee club from her personal life.

_**You could have had it all**_

_**Rolling in the deep**_

_**You had my heart and soul in your hand**_

_**And you played and you played and you played and you played **_

_**It to the beat**_

A slow hand clap interrupted the glaring match Jesse and Rachel had going. Shelby walked up to the stage and gave the couple her highest praise. "Not bad, kids. Your timing may have been infinitesimally off in the second chorus but otherwise a very creditable show." Rachel blinked, slowly coming back to the real world. Her emotions were still jumbled up from the song and she was not in the right state of mind for a critique. Especially not from her mother, who she felt should be offering her a hug and an 'are you alright, dear?' instead.

"Jesse, I want you to show Rachel where the sign up sheet for Vocal Adrenaline auditions is on your way to fifth period. I've been wracking my brain trying to come up with something new that the judges at Nationals haven't seen us do yet, and now I've got it – build a performance around two star performers instead of just one. This will be our greatest victory yet!"

"It's on the bulletin board next to choir room, you can't miss it," Jesse said in a monotone without looking at Rachel. "If you'll excuse me, I have to get to class."

That left Shelby alone with her daughter, who was not turning the expected cartwheels at learning she was going to be a star performer of Vocal Adrenaline. Belatedly, she asked "So, how has your first day at Carmel been?"

"Fine," Rachel replied without emotion. "I believe they are waiting for me in civics. Would you please write me a late pass?"

"Of course," Shelby complied, unnerved by Rachel's de-bubbled personality shift. She wondered if this was that mood-swingy teenager thing she had heard about. "Is everything OK?"

"Fine," Rachel repeated. "I'll see you later."

"Practice starts at 4.00 today," Shelby called after her. "Don't worry about your audition, you'll breeze it."

In retrospect, Shelby realised Rachel's lack of response to this encouragement should have been a tip-off as to what was to come. It might have lessened the shock when Rachel did not walk through the choir room door at 4 sharp with the rest of VA. As she paced outside the door, wondering what could have happened to her and reaching for her cell to make sure that her daughter was alright and not trapped inside some car wreckage or kidnapped by sex trade dealers (the only scenarios which seemed plausible enough to prevent Rachel from attending a rehearsal), she noticed the bulletin board for the extra curriculars and saw a distinctive gold star winking at her from one of the sign up sheets, with Rachel's signature written clearly beside it.

But strangely enough, it was not the Vocal Adrenaline sign up sheet.

**I know I don't deserve it after making you wait so long but please review! It may guilt me into making the next update more timely. Plus I did make this chapter extra long as my penance.**

**Song credits: Welcome to the Jungle by Guns and Roses, Duck and Run by Three Doors Down and Rolling in the Deep by Adele. Wasn't Michele and Groff's performance of RITD amazing? I didn't even like the original song but I love their version – in spite of what I had Shelby say, it was flawless!**


	6. Chapter 6

**A.N. Extra long chapter as a thank you to the readers who patiently stick with my story. Hope you like!**

"Haven't we been in this store already?" Rachel groaned as Marcie towed the tired diva behind her.

"Rachel, we've only covered the east and southern parts of the mall so far." Marcie spoke over the clatter of coathangers colliding together as clothing racks were scoured by the girl from Tennessee. She frowned as she considered a navy jacket with military trimmings, putting it in the maybe pile. "We should really set up a perimeter and run a grid search so we don't miss any good shops."

"Enough! I don't think my credit card can take anymore," Rachel declared, silently wondering what her dads would think when they opened the next statement. "Please, let's forage some sustenance in the food court before I faint from malnutrition."

"Drama queen," Marcie laughed, surrendering with good grace.

"Guilty as charged," Rachel replied. Later, as they dined on Tex Mex nachos (beef for Marcie, vegetarian for Rachel), Marcie resumed the conversation.

"Speaking of drama queens, how did you enjoy your first official Dramagik meeting?"

"It was interesting. Kind of intense, but interesting. But I was surprised you don't have a teacher advising you – isn't that unusual?"

"The guidance counsellor, Mr Wolloghan, is supposed to double up as the drama teacher but his style of acting would be considered overdone even by the housewives of Wisteria Lane." Marcie rolled her eyes.

"I take it he was more hindrance than help," Rachel asked with an arched eyebrow.

"Totally. In the end Petra convinced him that it was more 'beneficial to our developing psyches' to manage the drama club on our own and as he was the guidance counsellor it would be, like, really progressive of him to leave us to it. He was quick to agree, anything that would get him home from work 2 hours earlier. So now we have minimal adult supervision and full artistic licence – pretty sweet, huh?"

Rachel's thoughts flashed to her various run-ins with Mr Schue, arguing about solos that rightfully belonged to her, his occasional lapses into musical insanity when it came to song choice (I mean, Freak Out – really?) and the simplistic weekly challenges he doled out that could as easily be assigned to a kindergarten choir. "Sounds like heaven," she agreed emphatically. "It also makes sense to me now as to how you ever got permission to stage _Little Shop of Horrors_ as the current semester's musical."

"Yeah, it does have some iffy bits, what with the flesh eating plant and the kinky sadist dentist. But you have to admit, the songs are _so_ catchy."

"No argument." Rachel looked hesitant for a moment, but then ploughed on with determination. "I hope the fact that I auditioned for the lead female role today will not cause any competitive friction between us, Marcie."

Marcie waved a nonchalant hand. "Are you kidding? No way do I want my singing voice on display in solos. I much prefer being part of the three girl Greek chorus with Donna and Petra – it's easier to hide the sharp notes that way."

They then spent the next half hour in an engrossing discussion of the musical, agreeing that Rachel was a shoe-in to play Audrey but none of the male Dramagiks were the right fit to play opposite as Seymour.

"Looking for the right male lead is the story of my life," Rachel sighed. "Why is it so hard to find a good man in this cynical world?"

"You speak like someone who's been looking," Marcie remarked.

"Honestly, the ancient Greek philosopher, Diogenes, did not look harder for an honest man than I have."

"Yeah, but Diogenes was a crackpot who used to hang around in marketplaces, shoving his lantern in people's faces and asking if they're righteous. Stands to reason you don't get results with that approach. So maybe you've got the same problem – you're trying too hard. You should sit back and let a good guy find you."

_Yeah, sure, like that's going to happen_, Rachel thought. And then…

"Rachel?" a familiar voice spoke behind her.

"Finn?" she spun around, feeling off-balance and guilty to be found here by her ex-boyfriend. Not that she had done anything wrong, but still, she probably should have let him know that she was transferring.

Sure enough, the boy in question had reached their table with a few strides of his unusually long legs, putting Rachel in mind of an Irish Wolfhound bounding happily towards its master. Well, that and the big grin on his face as he looked down at her.

"Where have you been lately? I haven't seen you in three days and you weren't in chemistry today which really sucked because I had to pair up with Jacob Ben-Israel instead and he spent the whole class cleaning out his ear with his little finger and how is that going to help my grade? I asked Kurt and Mercedes if they'd seen you but they didn't know anything which is kind of weird because usually they know what's going on with everybody at school. So I figured you were out sick and seeing as how you're crazy about your perfect attendance so much you even came to school when you had laryngitis, I thought it must be pretty serious to keep you away so I thought I'd come by the mall and buy you some flowers or a donut to cheer you up – you know, the fancy kind with jam and cream and sprinkles. But then I find you here and you don't look sick at all."

Rachel smiled up at her former co-captain with tolerant affection. "I can assure you that I'm in perfect health, Finn. So you're welcome to keep the donut for yourself."

"Oh, well, if you're sure," he said, face brightening at the thought.

"Positive." As Finn plunked himself down at the table and opened a takeaway bag, Marcie sent her a questioning look as if to say 'who the hell is this guy?'.

"Marcie, this is Finn Hudson. We used to go to the same school… Glee club. School glee club together. But our glee club got cancelled and that's why I say 'used to'. Obviously." Rachel gave a nervous little laugh which made Marcie look at her oddly. "Finn, this is – "

"Marcie Calhoun," she took up the gambit, turning sharply towards Finn. "Council Height Inspector."

"Height Inspector? What's that?" Finn asked.

"Oh, we look out for people above the regulation height, breaching the new Council air space laws. And unless you can show me a valid permit, Mr Hudson, I'm going to have to write you a ticket."

Rachel had to smother a desperate urge to laugh at the confused and scared look on Finn's face; her new friend truly was a brilliant actor, slipping into character with great skill. "Marcie is just teasing, Finn. She's my friend – we're in an acting class together."

"Oh, right. Yeah, you got me there for like a second," Finn said, trying to sound cool about the whole thing. "Are you really Rachel's friend?"

"Is that so incredible?" Marcie replied.

"No, of course not. I just didn't think she had any friends. I mean, of course she has friends," he clarified, realising that had sounded kind of Santana-esque. "I just meant real friends who don't mind that she talks too much and usually about stuff no-one really cares about." He turned towards Rachel with his sideways smile and covered her hand with his own. "Like me."

_Who _is_ this guy?_ Marcie thought. _Is this what passes for charm in his tiny mind?_

For her part, Rachel looked uncomfortable as she drew her hand away from Finn's. "Yes, well, I'm afraid I must be heading home as it is getting rather late. Not to mention it will take me all night to categorise these new outfits into my clothing organisation system."

"Wait, Rach, there was something I had to tell you," Finn cried, grabbing her hand to stay her exit. "Uh – oh, I've got it, I'm supposed to let you know that we're holding an emergency Glee meeting after school tomorrow."

"I thought you just said your glee club got cancelled," Marcie asked Rachel.

"It did," Finn answered for her. "I think the end of glee club has hit Mr Schuester just as hard as it has us, especially since his divorce came through and now with Ms Pilsbury dating her dentist, it was like New Directions was all he had going for him. So we wanted to do something nice for him to thank him for being our teacher and take his mind off how much his life sucks."

"You have such a way with words," Marcie mused. "Have you ever considered a career in the greeting card business?"

"I was thinking more along the lines of NFL pro-footballer," Finn said seriously. "And if that doesn't work out I could always be a rock star."

"Good idea. Smart of you to have a fall back," Marcie said with a straight face.

"I think that it is very commendable of you to want to do something nice for Mr Schuester," Rachel jumped in before Finn could respond. "Perhaps you could sing a heartfelt song with a significant meaning for him."

"Hey, that's not a bad idea," Finn said, waving his half-eaten donut at Rachel in agreement. "It's better than Puck's idea to set him up with one of his cougars, because I can't see Mr Schue dating a married lady."

"Definitely not," Rachel agreed, wrinkling her nose.

"And I really don't think he'd be cheered up by Kurt breaking into his apartment and burning all his sweater vests."

"Really? Those were your top two ideas?" Marcie asked, leaning her head on her hand and gazing at Finn in awe.

"Okay, Rach, so we'll see you in the choir room at 4.00 tomorrow," Finn said, his chair screeching as he stood up. "Oh, and if you could choose a song and work out all the arrangements and sheet music stuff, that would be awesome. See you tomorrow. Nice meeting you, Mary."

"The pleasure was mine, Phil," she called after him. She turned her gaze to Rachel who shifted uncomfortably under the scrutiny and finally cried "What?"

"Number one; how does he not know you don't go to his school anymore and number two, please don't tell me you're actually dating that jellyfish."

"I'm planning on breaking it to him tomorrow, secondly, we're not exactly dating and what do you mean by jellyfish? Are you implying that Finn is spineless because there is no way you could know that about him on such a short acquaintance." When Marcie smirked knowingly, Rachel hastened to add "Not that he is, of course."

"I was actually referencing the second Bridget Jones movie – remember that girl who called herself Bridget's friend but every time she opened her mouth she would sting poor Bridget with backhanded compliments or undermining digs? They called it jellyfishing, which I figured was a damn fine saying to add to the modern lexicon. Certainly see plenty of it going on in high school. Not to mention at this table in the last half hour."

"While I admit Finn does not always consider the effect of his words before he speaks, he never means to be deliberately hurtful."

"Maybe, but in the end – you still get hurt, Rachel."

Rachel's mouth twisted upwards wryly. "Like I said – a good male lead is hard to find. Sometimes you have to make do with what's at hand."

GLEE / GLEE / GLEE / GLEE / GLEE / GLEE / GLEE / GLEE / GLEE / GLEE /

"I just don't understand this – this _idiotic_ choice you're making."

Rachel bit down hard on her vegan waffle as her mother picked up the argument that had been looping through their conversation for the last two hours.

"My decision to join the Dramagiks over Vocal Adrenaline is no longer open for discussion, Shelby," Rachel said, striving to make her tone mature and unemotional. She enjoyed approximately 10 seconds of peace before Shelby remarked,

"That's fine. If you want to throw away your career by joining a bunch of nobodies instead of a 3 consecutive national championship choir which would give your talent countrywide exposure, not to mention the scholarship opportunities, then go ahead."

"Why is it so hard to understand?" Rachel yelled, abandoning all attempts to be calm. "If you had to choose between a group of people that had reviled you and threw eggs at you or one that was accepting of who you are, wouldn't you choose the second group?"

"That's what this is about? Because VA didn't play nice when you first met? Rachel, when you first came up against my team, you were the competition, the enemy. Of course they were antagonistic. But once you become one of us, it's a whole other story."

"Didn't seem like another story yesterday in the quad. Felt like old times, the way they circled me and called me names, threatened me with another egging if I came anywhere near them."

"Is that what the sing-off was about?" Shelby was horrified and furious that her team would do this to her daughter – again. "Don't you worry about it, baby. I'm going to work them over at rehearsal so hard, it'll make boot camp look like a holiday resort. After today, they're not going to lay a finger on you."

"Why? Because their coach is my mother? Because you'll order them to? Or because I have the talent to snare you that fourth consecutive championship you're after? I've already served time on a team that at best tolerated me because I was useful. For the first time I've got a chance to work with a bunch of kids who seem to really like me – me, Rachel freaking Berry."

Shelby closed her eyes and took a long, calming breath before speaking again. "Rachel, when I was your age I would have killed for the opportunities that you have – parents that supported my goals and the appropriate arena to prove my talent. Instead I got a father who kept pushing me towards business school so I could join his accounting firm and a third rate glee club that never had enough members to even qualify for competition. You don't seem to realise the decisions you make now will affect your college and career choices. I won't let you throw that away."

"Are you going to make residing with you contingent on my joining Vocal Adrenaline?" Rachel asked, crossing her arms in stand-off position. After a pause, Shelby asked,

"Would that work?" Rachel stayed silent, just fixing her mother with her reproachful gaze. Shelby sighed. "I'm not in the habit of forcing people to join my show choir, Rachel. I'm more in the habit of turning people away."

Just then a horn could be heard outside Shelby's house. "That will be Marcie. She offered to give me a ride to school."

"What happened to Jesse?" Shelby frowned.

Rachel shrugged and grabbed her oversized messenger bag full of school books. "Probably off sulking somewhere because I won't fall back into his arms."

Shelby looked at her daughter speculatively, noting the stubborn pout of her lips. "He really does care about you, you know. I've never seen him put as much effort into a relationship as he has with you."

Rachel shook her head, dismissing Shelby's words. "I'll see you tonight."

"Very well, but I want you to think about what I've said regarding your future. Come home directly from school and we will finish this discussion."

Rachel bit her lip. "I can't. I have this thing at 4 o'clock."

"What thing? Shopping again? I don't want you hanging out late at the mall two nights in a row."

"No, not shopping. Truthfully, I am atypical of most teenage girls as I am not usually much of a consumer. I have to meet my old glee club at McKinley after school."

Shelby raised her eyebrows at her daughter. "McKinley? I thought you were finished with that school?"

"I am, I just – well, I never really told them I was leaving so I thought if I helped them out with one last glee project then we could say goodbye on a pleasant note."

"So, you're going to face alone the people you have just told me regularly mistreated and used you to tell them you're joining the school that just trounced them at regionals? I'm still kind of new to this so you tell me, as a parent, should I be worried about this?"

"I'll be fine," Rachel assured her, slipping on her showface. "They may be a little thoughtless with their words and actions towards me sometimes but I am sure on some level they consider me their friend and will respect my decision."

Marcie's horn honked again, prompting Rachel to swiftly brush a butterfly kiss against her mother's cheek and then fly out the door. Even though Shelby had a feeling the kiss was more of an unthinking habit of the Berry family than a deliberate action, it still sent a thrill of sweetness through her. The soft look on her face soon hardened to her usual ruthless determination; Rachel may live her life in a rosy haze of good intentions and blind optimism, but she would not take chances with her daughter's safety. She reached for her phone.

GLEE / GLEE / GLEE / GLEE / GLEE / GLEE / GLEE / GLEE / GLEE / GLEE /

_If you wanted the moon I would try to make a start_

_But I would rather _

_You let me give my heart_

_To Sir, with love_

As the McKinley High glee club finished their tribute to Mr Schue, there was not a dry eye among them, including their teacher. Rachel could not help but feel pride in how well the song had come together, especially the duet harmonies she had arranged between Artie and Tina and Finn and Mercedes. She felt a strong pang of regret that this was the last song she would perform with them; it was times like this, when they all came together in song and put aside their petty differences, that she remembered why Glee had once been the brightest spot in her day.

After Mr Schuester had scrubbed a hand across his eyes, thanked them in a choked voice and left, her former team mates stood up from their stools, ready to disperse and put the school day behind them. Fighting down the twisting panic in her stomach, Rachel spoke up in her best co-captain manner. "Before you leave, I wish to make an announcement." They all turned to look at her but the interest level was not very high; irritated sighs and rolling eyes was the general response. "I feel that, as your former leader, I should apprise you of certain events that have occurred in my life recently."

"No-one's interested in the latest developments in your lonely, pathetic life, Man Hands," Quinn sneered. First day back after giving birth and she was in prime bitch form.

"Come on, guys," Finn said awkwardly (he always felt uncomfortable when going against the general opinion). "Rachel put this whole song together for us today; the least we can do is hear her out."

"Yes, very altruistic of her; I noticed she gave herself the most solos," Kurt sniffed, examining his manicured nails.

"You can complain? You got two solos – I only had one," Mercedes huffed.

"Fellow Glee-clubbers, please. I promise I will make this brief and then you can all go home."

"Home? I thought you said we were going out for pizza after," Britney said to Santana. Everybody frowned at Britney and then darted their eyes to Rachel significantly. "Ohhh. Sorry, I forgot," Britney whispered loudly.

Now Rachel was remembering just why her happiest time with these people was when they were singing; because when the music stopped, they were like this. Suddenly, she could not wait to get out of McKinley High.

"All I wanted to say was I wish you all well in your future endeavours. I know we have had our differences but I hope you can be happy for me as I open a new and exciting chapter in my life." The boredom of their expressions hinted that her hope was futile, but she ploughed on, fighting to keep the nerves out of her tone. "To that end, I am here to inform you that I am no longer a student of McKinley. I have transferred to a – different school."

"Where is this school; the Shire?" Santana snarked. "Or the end of the rainbow so you can keep an eye on your pot of gold?"

"Where it is is not important right now," Rachel rushed on. "I just wanted to say goodbye."

"Oh my God, it's Carmel, isn't it?" Kurt shrieked in outrage. "I knew it! You're jumping ship just so you can claw your way up the Vocal Adrenaline ladder."

"That's not true, I'm not even joining Vocal Adrenaline," Rachel cried.

"So you admit you are going to Carmel?" Quinn interrogated, sharp as honed steel. "The school that just destroyed our Glee Club?" The blonde smiled cruelly at the stricken look on her favourite victim's face. Slowly and deliberately, she spat "Traitor!"

"It's not like that," Rachel denied but as she looked on the shuttered faces of the people she once thought her friends, she knew they would not listen. She turned imploring eyes to Finn, begging him to stand up for her, to make them hear her, but he avoided her eyes, his mouth forming a hard line.

"I can't believe you would do something this low."

"I can – she's always put herself first."

"She's probably going there so she can pant after St Jerk."

"No, she just wants to go to Nationals and doesn't care who she steps on to make it there."

Rachel no longer had a voice to defend herself with as her throat was burning from the tears she was trying desperately to stifle, although some escaped her eyes. She turned to run out of the auditorium, unable to bear any more of their cruelty, when a muscular forearm blocked her way. She looked up through wet eyes at the stoic face of Noah Puckerman, waiting for him to deliver the final blow. Then he did something that astounded her; he winked.

"Yeah, it's a real mystery why Rachel would want to leave your warm and fuzzy company," he said, raising his voice above their bitching comments. "Did it ever occur to you douchebags that her leaving might have something to do with the way you treat her?"

"Hey, who are you calling a douchebag?" Finn objected. "We're not douchebags."

"You guys are Masters in douchebaggery," Puck said with careful deliberation. "You could lecture at Harvard in AP classes on Advanced Douchosity. You could publish a thesis in The American Douchebag Journal." He turned towards Rachel with a smile and put a finger under her chin to close her gaping mouth. "Good luck at Carmel, Rach. If any of those Vocal Adrenaline assholes give you grief, let me know and my guns are at your service."

Not trusting her voice, Rachel gave a shaky but genuine smile, nodded her head and walked out of the McKinley Auditorium with her head held high. Out of all the Rachel Berry storm outs, this would be her finest exit – dignified, regal, a queen abdicating her throne to conquer a new kingdom.

It was going perfectly until she stepped through the doors and a hand grabbed her wrist, pulling sharply until Rachel was colliding with a familiar chest. Catching her breath, she shook off the unwanted grasp and frowned at her assailant.

"What are _you_ doing here?"


	7. Chapter 7

**A.N. Another chapter of this slow but steadily moving story – hope you enjoy!**

Rachel pushed herself away from Jesse's firm grip on her waist but only gained a couple inches of distance for her effort. She sent a fuming glare his way as she said, "You do realise that this is technically classed as an assault, right?"

"Well, serenades and attentive gestures don't seem to be having any impact, maybe a touch of caveman is what you respond to," he answered, but his usual charming smile was absent. Instead he had that dark angel look that reminded Rachel that this was not one of her teenage glee-mates that she could overbear with her tantrums and extensive vocabulary. There would always be something of an unknown quantity about Jesse and she would do well to remember that.

Slightly cowed, she said in a more moderate tone, "How did you know I was here?" Before he could answer, she replied to her own question. "Shelby!"

"Don't overreact. She just didn't want you going into a hostile situation without backup." He shot her a knowing look. "And before you deny that's what it was, let me say I just took in the show."

"Oh," Rachel swallowed, eyes darting downwards.

"Yes, Oh. Remind me to buy Puckerman a beer sometime for standing up for you like that. Although he did step on my big moment – I was just about to make my entrance when he opened fire on your so-called friends."

"Oh really?" Rachel eyed her would-be protector sceptically. "You would have taken on four football players and a trio of rabid cheerleaders single-handedly?"

Jesse steered her towards the exit with his hand on her lower back. "I never said I wasn't thankful that my interference was uncalled for."

GLEE / GLEE / GLEE / GLEE / GLEE / GLEE / GLEE / GLEE / GLEE / GLEE /

"Can you make a left here?" Rachel asked.

"Isn't this your old street?" Jesse remembered it well from their dating period. He turned the wheel as instructed and it was not long before they were parked outside her fathers' house. Jesse said nothing as Rachel stared at her childhood home, her face stormy with conflicting emotions. Then with her usual impulsiveness she jumped out of the car and walked with determined gait to the front door, Jesse racing to catch up.

"Uh, Rachel, what exactly are we doing here?" he asked nervously. She did not answer, just bit her lip nervously before she opened the front door and stepped through. As Jesse wavered on whether he would be wise to follow (not knowing how up to date her parents were on the dubious nature of his past involvement with their daughter), she grabbed him by his jacket lapel and pulled him through.

"Hey, careful with the merchandise," he grumbled, smoothing down his designer leather.

"Rachel?" a voice called out from the living room. "Rachel, is that you?"

"Daddy?" Rachel replied, walking towards her father's voice. Tears filled her eyes when she saw the joy on Hiram Berry's face as he opened his arms to his prodigal daughter. Without hesitation she stepped into his embrace and their reunion was touching enough to bring a tightness to Jesse's throat (even as another part of his mind memorised the emotion they portrayed for use in future acting roles). When Hiram finally noticed the boy's presence, he did his best to pull himself together, while still keeping an arm around Rachel.

"Jesse?" He stepped towards him with hand raised, causing Jesse to take a reflexive step backwards until he realised his intent was to shake his hand. "It's good to see you again, son. Have you and my girl finally made up your lover's quarrel?" This answered Jesse's silent question as to how well informed Rachel's parents were and he quickly met Hiram's handshake with his own.

"It's a work in progress," Jesse replied with a smile at Rachel who rolled her eyes.

Hiram chuckled knowingly. "Lord knows my little star can be stubborn but she always comes to her senses eventually. As evidenced by her presence here now."

"Daddy," Rachel objected, "I would not characterise my visit to you as the result of some kind of epiphany of good judgment."

"Visit?" Hiram's face fell ludicrously. "What do you mean 'visit'? Aren't you coming back home?"

There then began the inevitable quarrel, running along the lines _I have a home with the mother you tried to shut out of my life_ and _How can you wound your father and I with such base ingratitude_ (Jesse could see where Rachel picked up her melodramatic turn of phrase) so he decided to sidle to a dark corner of the room to check his messages while the battle raged. Immediately he found 8 texts from Shelby asking why he had not brought Rachel home yet and were they in some kind of trouble. As the last 2 texts promised violent acts on his person if he did not respond immediately, he quickly sent a vague message to hold off her maternal rage.

_Had to make pit stop in Lima. Will be back ASAP._

How Shelby divined the truth from these cryptic words he had no idea but her next text read _Did you take Rachel to the Berry's house?_ As he gawked disbelievingly at his phone, another text appeared _Answer me NOW!_

Quickly snapping shut his phone, he turned towards the pair whose argument had devolved into shouting and sweeping hand gestures. "Rachel, we really need to get going," he interrupted in a panicky voice. He then noticed the tears running down her cheeks and his concern shifted away from his own imminent death-by-Glee-coach to her situation. "Are you alright?"

She swiftly wiped the tears away with the back of her hand. "I'm fine. I just need to grab my autographed playbills collection and we can go." She turned on her heel and raced up the steps, leaving Jesse in the awkward position of dealing with the other overwrought Berry. Hiram cleared his throat, breaking the silence, and offered "Is Shelby – does her mother – is she treating her well?"

"Yes, as well as she knows how," Jesse replied.

Hiram nodded. "Good. That's good. You know, Jesse, this whole situation is very hard on Leroy and myself. We had no idea how strongly Rachel felt about her mother, given that she rarely asked questions about her. If we had known..."

"Mr Berry," Jesse interrupted, "I think you just need to give Rachel some space right now. This thing with Shelby is something Rachel has to sort out for herself. But I doubt finding her mother is going to undo the past 15 years of being your daughter. She loves you both; she will come back to you when she's ready."

"Leroy said pretty much the same thing," Hiram sighed in resignation. "Will you do one thing for me, Jesse?"

"If I can."

"Look out for my daughter."

At that moment Rachel stomped down the stairs, grappling with a large wooden box. Jesse made a motion to take it from her but she shouldered past him, refusing to make eye contact with him or her father. She had some trouble with the front door handle as her hands were occupied with the box but when Jesse made a move to open it for her she skewered him with a glare. With a frustrated grunt, she finally wrenched the door open and stormed through without a backwards glance.

Before following her, Jesse gave Hiram his answer; "Always."

Rachel managed to maintain a stony silence for a good 4 minutes as Jesse pointed his car back to Carmel, but when her driver made no attempt to coax her to talk or to even seem phased by her non-vocal protest, her anger came busting out.

"So now you're working for my father too?"

"What are you talking about?"

"I heard what he said to you – asking you to take care of me."

"Actually, the wording was 'watch out for', to be accurate. And I don't see what there is in that to get mad about."

"Who says I'm mad?" she said contrarily.

"It's obvious you're mad – you're not speaking in words with more than two syllables. The only times you do that is either when you're furious or you're trying to converse with Hudson."

"Fine – I am mad. No, I'm beyond mad – I am livid, incensed and enraged. Isn't it enough that Shelby has you jumping at her bidding? Do you have to be answering to my Dad as well? Although I'm not sure you'll see much profit from him – he doesn't have Shelby's pull with the UCLA admissions board so he can't snag you a scholarship. Neither are we fabulously wealthy, so there's no financial motive. But I'm sure you'll find a way to work this to your advantage – you always do."

Jaw grimly set, Jesse swerved his car onto the highway shoulder and turned to face the tempestuous girl. "Alright, let's get some things straight. I am not nor have I ever been controlled by Shelby, your fathers or anyone else. My pursuit of you was not some kind of quid pro quo with Shelby - the only thing I owe my scholarship to is my own enormous talent. And finally, the reason I went along with Shelby's request to lead you to her was because since she had spent the last four years helping me to achieve my dreams, I felt I owed it to her to help her achieve hers. That's you, by the way – you're her dream. I'm being painfully clear on that point because I know you have a hard time recognising that people love you even when it's glaringly obvious."

"I don't understand," Rachel said softly, her anger quelled by Jesse's tirade.

"What don't you understand, Rachel," Jesse sighed, closing his eyes and dropping his head back against the headrest.

"Why did she reject me? Why did you leave me? Why did my fathers lie to me about my mother? I want to believe you, Jesse, that the people I love having nothing but good intentions for me, but then I remember how much... trusting people... hurts and... it's hard, Jesse. It's just too hard." Her voice trembled sadly at the end.

Jesse felt that tightness in his throat once again and wondered if he was coming down with something or it was just an effect he'd have to get used to if he was going to be around this heartbreaking girl. Without a word, he dragged the unresisting bundle of Rachel into his lap and held her close as she watered his shoulder with her tears. Finally he spoke through the choking sensation to say, "People make mistakes sometimes, Rach. They get scared or overprotective and end up hurting the person they care for the most. But it doesn't mean they stop loving you."

Rachel raised her head and searched Jesse's face, for once finding it open and easy to read. Apparently what she saw gave her some comfort as she offered him a small smile. "I know what you mean. It's not easy to stop loving someone."

The young man looked disbelieving at the girl in his lap, wondering if he was reading the right meaning into her words. The fact that she did not drop her gaze as well as the little flags of pink colouring her cheeks helped to convince him he was not misinterpreting.

Rachel's heart went into overtime as Jesse bent his head towards her, wondering if he was going to kiss her. Jesse knew he was going to kiss her. Their lips were but a hairsbreadth apart when the moment was shattered by a black Range Rover pulling up in front of them and an irate Shelby Corcoran slamming out of the vehicle. When the two teens saw what was coming towards them, their faces were comical mirrors of apprehension.

"Oh crap," Jesse breathed.

"Jesse, please tell me there's an eject button on this seat," Rachel whimpered.

"What the hell is going on here?" Shelby yelled. "I've been pacing the floor waiting for my daughter to come home and now I find her canoodling in an open car on the highway with the boy I trusted her safety to!" She turned her Medusa stare onto her protégé. "I thought I told you to bring her straight home."

"Yes, I was just in the process of doing that when..."

"When you what? Took her to her fathers' house in direct conflict with my orders? Or when you felt the urge to attack her with your lips?"

"Mom, there's no reason to get upset – " Rachel began, quickly shuffling out of her compromising position on Jesse's lap.

"Don't you "Mom" me, young lady. I have a good mind to – " Shelby broke off in mid-sentence as her eyes widened and filled with what looked suspiciously like tears. "Wait – you "Mommed" me." Rachel had not used that word for Shelby since the day she had asked her to help her make a dress for the Gaga project and her mother had just about given up hope that she would ever deserve the title again.

"Uh.. yes?" Rachel confirmed fearfully as she exited the car, only to be swept into her second parental bone-crushing hug of the day. She made a _what do I do _face to Jesse over Shelby's shoulder but he just shrugged, as mystified as her. So she decided to just go with it and hugged her mother back. She remembered the last time they had hugged like this was when they were saying goodbye to each other that day in the auditorium. This was the first embrace they had shared which didn't feel like it was going to be the last one, a realisation which sent warmth spreading through Rachel's being.

The moment was broken when Jesse cleared his throat. "I can see that I am intruding on a private moment here so I should probably tactfully withdraw at this point..."

"Nice try, St James, but you're not getting off that easy." Shelby was back in command mode. "I want you at the Carmel auditorium at 5.30 am tomorrow morning for an extra 3 hour rehearsal session. We'll be stretching your stamina to the limits so wear something you don't mind wringing the sweat out of. Every. Half. Hour."

Jesse gulped at the prospect but did not dare to protest when his coach was giving him _that _look. He nodded in miserable agreement and was about to turn over the engine when Rachel made the error of speaking up on his behalf.

"Shelby, Jesse didn't do anything wrong. I'm sorry we are a little late but it was mostly my fault and we really were on our way home. And may I say by way of addendum that I find it rather unprofessional of you to use your position of trust as Jesse's teacher as a means to exact punishment on him for non-school related matters."

"No, Rachel, you may not say," Shelby replied calmly. "Now get in my car – you're grounded for a week."

"But Mom," Rachel whined, lip at full pout.

"Don't think you can keep drawing water from that well. Get!"

The young girl turned to Jesse in irritation, obviously looking for some assistance from that quarter. "I thought you said she doesn't control you?"

"She doesn't control me," Jesse replied with a wry smile. "She just scares the bejesus out of me." He laughed at Rachel's indignant expression before impulsively jumping out of his car, grabbing the surprised girl by the shoulders and pressing his mouth firmly against hers under the condemning eye of his coach.

"You just added another hour onto that rehearsal, kid," Shelby shouted over the roar of his engine.

"Totally worth it," he yelled back, causing a secret smile to curl Rachel's lips. So caught up in romantic daydreams, she made no demur as Shelby guided her to the Range Rover by way of an arm around her waist, even dropping her head against her mother's shoulder. Then an errant thought disturbed the peaceful moment. "How did you know where to find me? You knew I was at my dads' house and you found us on the road – how?"

"Er... mother-daughter intuition," Shelby answered as she started the car. _That and the GPS tracker that all my VA students have in their standard issue phones._

"Really?" Rachel said innocently. "Wow! That's amazing. Did I ever tell you that I'm a little psychic?"

"Now you know where you got it from," Shelby said indulgently, patting her girl's knee.

Rachel really was too easy. It was a good thing she had her mother to watch over her. She would make sure that no-one would ever take advantage of her daughter again.

No-one.

**A.N. Have I chilled you with that ending? I never said Shelby didn't have a dark side.**

**Reviews are crunchy toast!**


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter 8**

**A.N. I'm baaaack! People have been alerting my story lately which is always nice so I felt I'd better add another chapter. Hope you enjoy.**

"Rachel!" Shelby called as she walked though her front door. Sounds of movement could be heard from Rachel's bedroom and Shelby walked towards it. She was just reaching for the handle when it turned underneath her hand and her daughter appeared, bright eyed and breathless.

"Mom," she cried happily, launching herself at Shelby with a big hug. "You're home early."

"The staff meeting went smoother than expected and we finished up quickly," Shelby replied. "What's got you so excited?"

"Can't a girl just be happy to see her mother?" Rachel asked as she walked Shelby towards the living room (and away from her bedroom). She rushed on before Shelby's doubtful look turned into suspicion. "So how was your rehearsal today? Did you try out that Coldplay number I suggested? I really think that could be a contender for Nationals."

"Yes, it went quite well although I'm still not sure about that song – Chris Martin's voice is so distinctive that whenever anyone tries to cover Coldplay it just sounds wrong. Still, if anyone could pull that off, it would be Jesse. Speaking of, have you seen him today? He rushed out of rehearsal so fast it made me wonder if he was anxious to get to some place – or to some one," Shelby asked suggestively.

"Nope – haven't seen him all day." Rachel made sure to keep her eyes wide and steady as she stated this.

"You two aren't still fighting, are you?"

"Not exactly. We're just keeping it _cazh_, working on the friendship, that kind of thing." Rachel shrugged.

"Oh," Shelby said, trying to cover her disappointment. She had not given up on luring Rachel to join VA; she was positive that if Rachel fell in love with Jesse again he would convince her to give up those second-rate hacks in her theatre club and take her place in her mother's show choir where she belonged. Still, she was smart enough to know that pushing Rachel in one direction was a sure fire way to make her daughter want to head the other way, so she stifled her opinion and asked with false cheer "And how did your rehearsal go with the Dramagiks?"

"Great! I mean, we are still lacking a male lead – Tim is trying his best but he doesn't really have the star quality to carry a leading role," Rachel admitted, looking a little vexed. "Not to mention his singing is mediocre at best. So we're thinking of holding an open audition for his role, look outside the Dramagiks for some undiscovered talent."

"Well, good luck with that," Shelby said, toeing off her pumps as she relaxed in an armchair. "All the singing talent in that school is in Vocal Adrenaline. With one exception."

Ignoring Shelby's significant look, Rachel continued, "Actually, I was hoping perhaps you could put in a good word for us with VA – one of your trained performers would be just the thing to save our production. I'm sure with your multitude of talent you could spare one - "

Shelby held up her hand to halt Rachel's spiel. "Don't even think about it, Rachel. Even if I could spare one, and with Nationals coming up that's not an option, but even if I could, nobody in my choir would be so foolhardy with their reputation as to associate with the drama geeks."

"Dramagiks," Rachel corrected. "And they could do the musical and still perform at Nationals – the play's run finishes 2 weeks before the competition."

"I tolerate no divided loyalties in Vocal Adrenaline. Everyone in my show choir must be solely focused on rehearsing and winning Nationals. No distractions, no other priorities."

"That seems somewhat harsh," Rachel said, face falling in disappointment.

"That's what it takes to win a national competition and grab the attention of every prestigious School of Arts in America."

"Okay, I think the record is skipping again." Rachel rolled her eyes and turned away towards the hall.

"That's what all the smart kids who listen to their mothers are doing," Shelby yelled after Rachel as she stomped away. When she heard the bedroom door slam, she blew out a frustrated breath and wondered why the one teenager she was incapable of controlling had to be her own daughter.

Rachel and Shelby's faces were mirror images of irritation at that moment as the shorter brunette threw herself gracelessly onto her bed, growling under her breath.

"Mmm, so sexy when you growl," Jesse whispered, rolling his body from the side of her bed until he covered hers. His lips traced down the side of her neck. "Now lie back and I'll make you purr."

Rachel tried not to respond to his touch, a game they sometimes played which she never won. But it was no use; soon she was melting back into his arms and resuming the activities arrested by her mother's interruption. It was only when Jesse's hand on her breast dragged a low moan from her lips that the passion stalled.

"Shhh," Jesse chided his girlfriend. "Shelby will hear."

"Don't care," Rachel panted, her mind now ruled by her body. "Let her." When Jesse's response was to move to arms length, Rachel groaned.

"Remind me, why are we hiding this from my mother again?" Rachel asked, watching regretfully as Jesse pulled his t-shirt down over his delicious abs. "It's not like she'd be opposed to our union. In fact, she pretty much engineered it."

"And came pretty close to tanking it, don't forget," Jesse reminded. "Trust me, the prospects of our relationship are only improved by Shelby's ignorance of it." What Jesse did not put into words was that if Shelby knew he was dating Rachel she would assume he was obeying her orders again, even though that wasn't the case. He was fed up with being her puppet so he had resolved to defy any more of her underhanded schemes, even when they lined up with his own desires. He leaned down to kiss the pout off Rachel's lips. "I'd better go. Would you care to join me for breakfast and showtunes at the Great White Way Cafe tomorrow?"

Rachel smiled at the thought of their favourite Broadway themed eating place and nodded in agreement, her lips never far from Jesse's as she walked him to her bedroom window.

GLEE / GLEE / GLEE / GLEE / GLEE / GLEE / GLEE / GLEE / GLEE / GLEE /

One night Rachel was surprised to find a text on her phone from one of her old glee-mates. Considering he was the only one of them that stood up for her the last time she had seen her former compatriots, she was quick to send a reply.

_Of course you can come over, Noah. I am delighted that you consider me someone you would like to call socially upon._

His reply was instant.

_Thanks, B. Bringing my best girl with me. See you soon._

His cryptic message set Rachel's nerves a-quivering, wondering if she was going to be fending off Quinn's stinging barbs all night or Santana's more blunt-edged hits. So when she opened up her door to find the mohawked hunk standing on her doorstep with a tiny blonde-haired wisp of girlhood cradled in his arms, she was both stunned and enchanted.

"Oh, Noah," she breathed as she reached for the big-eyed baby, "She's gorgeous."

"Course she is. She's pure Puckerone," Puck said proudly.

"I can't believe with all the upheavals in my life lately I forgot to find out what happened with yours and Quinn's baby," Rachel lamented as she allowed the infant to curl her tiny hand around her finger. She glanced up apologetically. "I'm such a bad friend."

"Don't sweat it, it's not like we were braiding each other's hair before you transferred," Puck said with a smirk.

"That would be a challenge," Rachel returned with a pointed look at his mohawk. "But honestly, I am sorry. Now you must tell me everything – are you really going to keep her? Are you and Quinn sharing custody? Have you chosen a daycare centre yet and if so does it nurture creatively gifted babies because it is never too early to start encouraging talent."

"OK, time for Beth to come away from the crazy girl and back to Daddy," Puck said, prying his child from Rachel's arms. "No offense but I don't need her catching your strain of insanity."

"Noah!"

"Fine! To answer your Spanish inquisition, I'm a single dad these days. Quinn wasn't ready for parenthood but I looked up my rights and it turned out that if Quinn didn't want her then I had all the say in what happens to this little pumpkin. Ma wasn't too wild about the idea at first but when I put this little charmer in her arms and Beth batted those big ol' blue eyes at her she just melted on the spot."

"Your mother always did have a heart of marshmallow," Rachel grinned. "She was always slipping me candies when she sat behind my family at Temple."

"That was just her buttering you up. She had you pegged as her future Jewish daughter-in-law since we were five."

"She did not!"

"Uh, yeah, she did. Why do you think I was such a dick to you all these years? I had to make you hate me because if you so much as smiled at me when she was around she'd go plotzing all over the place in Jewish joy. You can see the bind I was in."

"Daddy is just a big silly-head, isn't he," Rachel babbled as she waved a rattle before the bemused baby's nose. "Yes he is."

The night progressed well from that point. They ordered some Thai, caught each other up on the last two months and made stupid faces at Beth who was an excellent audience, gurgling happily at all their antics. By the time Shelby's car pulled in at 10.00 pm after another late night VA practice, their tentative truce had solidified to a genuine enjoyment of each other's company.

"Well, hello," Shelby said as she took in the little nativity tableau being played out on her living room floor. Rachel was sitting cross-legged, gently rocking a slumbering Beth as Noah slumped next to her, his head almost on her shoulder as he watched his daughter sleep. It took him a minute to register the circumstances of the last time he had met Shelby but when he did his eyes turned wary and his posture became alert, as though ready to ward off any attempt she made to take his daughter. Still, this was Rachel's mother so he grunted a semi-polite greeting.

"Mom, I don't believe you've met Noah Puckerman," Rachel said, standing up smoothly so as not to wake the baby. "And this little munchkin is his daughter – "

"Beth," Shelby finished, her eyes wistful as she gazed upon the tiny face.

"Why, yes, how did you know that?" Rachel asked in surprise. Shelby shared an alarmed look with Puck and he shook his head infinitesimally – no, he had not told Rachel about that night at the hospital.

"Lucky guess," Puck shrugged. Just then Beth opened her toothless mouth in a big yawn that won over her audience so completely Rachel forgot to question what Shelby did or didn't know.

"Would you like to hold her?" Rachel asked her mother, seeing how fascinated Shelby was by the beautiful little girl. Before either Shelby or Puck could lodge a protest, she had shifted Beth into Shelby's arms.

As the middle-aged woman drank in the sensation of holding this warm bundle of humanity, an old hunger reawakened in her, one that she had thought she had exorcised over these last two months as she forged a relationship with her daughter. It was the same hunger she had felt as he laid on a gurney in the maternity room, head turning towards the dark haired scrap that had just fought its way out of her body. And then the greatest miracle of her life; that tiny baby girl turned her head and looked right at her, as if to say _Here I am – hold me. _But she never was allowed to hold her baby and in consequence her arms had been empty for 15 years. She realised now this was the real reason she had balked at accepting Rachel as her daughter when they had first met, not because of any deficiency in the girl because she could not imagine being more proud to call anyone else her child. It was because Rachel was so fully her own person, shaped and moulded by forces Shelby had been no part of, that it drove home to her how much she had missed out on.

"Hey, sweet girl," she cooed, running a finger along the petal-soft skin of her cheek. The thought that this little baby might have been her daughter was a thought large in both hers and Puck's minds.

"I didn't realise it had gotten so late," Puck said, breaking the spell. "I should probably get her home before my Ma has conniptions."

"I'll just run upstairs and get her things," Rachel volunteered, racing up the stairs.

Once the young teen was out of earshot, Shelby said softly, "Thank you for not telling her about... you know."

Puck carefully transferred Beth back to his arms, his voice emotionless as he said "That was more for her benefit than yours. She just spent all evening telling me how great it is to have a mother at last. I didn't want to ruin it by telling her she was your second choice."

"It's not like that," Shelby said defensively. Then she sighed. "What you said to me that day – about me not being a decent mother to my own daughter – it really stayed with me. I've been trying to be what she needs ever since."

Puck examined his friend's mother with the eye of a man who knows more than a thing or two about attractive middle aged women. If her words were not enough of a tell, the way she could not take her eyes off his daughter's face certainly was. Which led him to the logical question. "But is she what you need?"

"I love my daughter," Shelby vowed, her eyes looking steadily into Puck's. "With all my heart. But at times like this, I can't help missing my baby girl."

Puck nodded, acknowledging his belief in her words. Her eyes were so sad they prompted him to offer, "You know, the problem with being a dad at 16 is you don't know who to ask to babysit for you because I know too damn well all the kids someone would usually ask to look after their kid and there's no way I could trust my little princess to the morons I hang out with." He rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly. "Perhaps sometimes I could leave Beth with you when I need to, you know, be a kid and not just a dad?"

Shelby gave that same wide smile her daughter had inherited. "I'd be honoured, Noah."

"Alright, I finally found the lavender seahorse behind the towel rack," Rachel announced as she thundered down the stairs. "Don't even ask me how Beth managed to throw it there when we bathed her."

"My little girl has got an arm on her," the proud papa declared. "See, I told you, Berry – pure Puckerone."

Rachel smiled fondly on the boy as she kissed first his cheek and then the baby's. "Come back soon, my friend."

"Count on it," he replied with a devilish grin for the two women, who waved goodbye as he drove away in his truck.

"That baby is sooo cute," Rachel gushed as Shelby put an arm around her shoulders, walking her upstairs.

"Mmm hmm," her mother agreed. "It puts me in mind of when you were that small."

"Mom," Rachel said, rolling her eyes in good humour. "You didn't even know me when I was Beth's age, how could she remind you of me?"

As she kissed her mother's cheek goodnight, Rachel had no idea how deeply her playful words hit home.

**Much like our favourite glee club, I am taking this story in a New Direction. Buckle up and get ready for some Grade A melodrama coming up soon!**


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9

**A.N. I just watched the Nationals episode tonight and loved the Jesse St James scenes – he still loves her so much and is such a great guy under all that showbiz bravado. Now that the so-called Finchel is kaput, the path is clear for a St Berry reunion because those two are so not finished yet.**

**Hope you enjoy this chapter – we're not up to the melodrama yet, but it's coming.**

**Also, the song is 'Suddenly Seymour' from my second-favourite musical, Little Shop of Horrors – great song, perfect for a diva.**

"Seriously, guys, could you jump the energy up a notch before I pass out from boredom?" Shelby's implacable voice resonated through the VA auditorium as her champion show choir fought for breath having just completed an extremely physical interpretation of Nirvana's _Smells Like Teen Spirit_ for the fourth time in a row. "If Kurt Cobain was alive to see this travesty, he'd kill himself - with one exception."

Jesse, wearing his best showface, waited for Shelby to exempt him from her condemnation as was the custom; his performances were always faultless.

"Jason, you were note perfect on that run through. Maybe you could give our lead singer some pointers," Shelby ruled.

"Excuse me? What the hell is that supposed to mean?" Jesse yelled, insulted to the core at the suggestion that a raw freshman recruit would have anything to teach him.

"Inside voice, Jesse," Shelby said in the same bored tone. "Save the projection for the song."

Jesse jumped down off the stage and strode towards Shelby sitting on her director's throne. "What is your problem, Shelby? I haven't missed a note since I was a freshman and even then it was only because one of the dancers sliced my arm open with her heel during a lift."

"Excuse me, Mr St James, I didn't realise we were on a first name basis," Shelby replied icily, turning her mike off; this was not a conversation her team needed to hear.

"My apologies, _coach_, I thought after all the shit you've had me do on your orders this year we were past the formalities," Jesse returned, just as coldly.

"Mind your language, kid," Shelby warned. "I think you need some time to cool off – you can sit out the next run through. It'll give me a chance to see how well Jason can handle lead vocal."

"Are you serious?"

"Don't forget, I made you lead when you were a freshman. Who knows, maybe we've found the next Jesse St James." Jesse flinched at the suggestion that anybody could ever replace him. "Besides, I find young performers are much better at following orders and _getting the job done_."

Jesse's eyes narrowed. "This is about Rachel, isn't it?"

"I don't know what you're talking about. Rachel isn't even a part of this team."

"And you hold me to blame for that. You ordered me to seduce her and convince her to join Vocal Adrenaline – "

"_Persuade_, not seduce! Why do you always go there?"

"And I haven't delivered. So now you're going to make my life hell until I buckle under."

"Seriously, Jesse, one more word and I'll throw you out of this rehearsal," Shelby threatened. There was no greater disgrace than for a performer to be evicted from a rehearsal.

"Then I'm going to make that word count – bitch!"

"Get out of my auditorium," Shelby blasted, pointing her finger at the door.

"Gladly," Jesse snarled. The slamming of the door behind him did not even begin to tap his frustration. He was so tired of Shelby trying to run his life and turn him into her minion. It was true what he told Rachel, Jesse St James did not allow other people to control him. Even when he had agreed to "befriend" Rachel the first time, it was only partly a favour to his coach but mostly he was going after what he wanted. The one time he had gone against his own inclinations and let Shelby control his actions, it had resulted in him abandoning Rachel and cementing the betrayal with an egg to her forehead.

Without conscious thought, his feet took him to the drama club room where he knew his girlfriend would be. Only her presence could smooth his ruffled spirit. As he stood in the doorway, unnoticed by the Dramagiks, he felt better just from watching the way she moved across the stage, caught up in her role as the abused Audrey. He marvelled as she cried real tears of guilt over the death of her sadistic dentist boyfriend and confessed in a broken voice "...cause in my heart I wished he was dead."

But the emotion built up by her performance was shattered when Tim spoke his lines; although a fair enough actor, he could not help looking like an amateurish schoolboy next to the powerhouse that was Rachel Berry.

"Cut!" Petra barked. "Damn it, Tim, you're trying to comfort the girl you're madly in love with while being torn apart with guilt from feeding her boyfriend to a talking plant the night before. You look about as emotional as a manically-depressed accountant." The blonde shook her head and waved her hand at the band. "Screw it, let's just pick up from the next song."

"Yeah, like his singing is any better than his acting," Jesse heard one of the guitarists mutter. Clearly, the complaints Jesse's girlfriend had been pouring into his ears about her co-star's singing ability were not exaggerated.

Rachel closed her eyes and braced herself for the mangling of her favourite song from this musical, repeating over and over in her head what her fathers used to tell her, _be patient,_ _not everybody is as talented as you._ When the soft piano intro finished, however, the voice that sang the gentle opening lines put the lie to her mantra, for this singer was the only person she knew who _was_ as talented as she.

_Lift up your head_

_Wash off your mascara_

_Here take my Kleenex_

_Wipe that lipstick away_

_Show me a face_

_As clean as the morning_

_I know things were bad_

_But now they're OK_

Rachel turned with hopeful eyes to see Jesse walking towards the stage. In the background Marcie was holding Tim back, her hand clamped over his mouth.

_Suddenly Seymour_

_Is standing beside you_

_You don't need no make-up_

_Don't have to pretend_

_Suddenly Seymour_

_Is here to provide you_

_Sweet understanding_

_Seymour's your friend_

Jesse, now on stage, reached his hand towards Rachel, the gesture perfectly conveying love and comfort as only a great actor can. But it did not take great acting to have to pretend to be in love with this girl. Not for Jesse. He saw the light in Rachel's eyes as he walked towards her, the barest hint of a smile, before she began her part of the duet.

**Nobody ever**

**Treated me kindly**

**Daddy left early**

**Mama was poor**

**I'd meet a man and I'd**

**Follow him blindly**

**He'd snap his fingers**

**Me, I'd say sure.**

She turned towards Jesse and he could not restrain a smile, as he anticipated that this was the part where Rachel could really let her pipes loose.

**Suddenly Seymour**

**Is standing beside me**

**He don't give me orders**

**He don't condescend**

**Suddenly Seymour**

**Is here to provide me**

**Sweet understanding **

**Seymour's my friend**

They sang the rest of the song to each other, forgetting their audience, caught up in the building momentum of the duet which of course ended in a passionate kiss. If the magic of singing across from Rachel wasn't argument enough, the thought that he would have free licence of her lips on stage for the foreseeable future was the clincher.

It was time his performing career took a change in direction.

GLEE / GLEE / GLEE / GLEE / GLEE / GLEE / GLEE / GLEE / GLEE / GLEE /

Rachel could barely contain herself on the drive home from school and as soon as her front door closed behind them, Rachel flung herself into Jesse's arms. He in turn picked her up and spun her around (it was kind of their thing).

"Jesse, this is wonderful," she cried happily. "I was hoping my Mom would relent and let one of her performers save our production, but for her to share her lead singer – it's unbelievable."

"I'd second that," Shelby said, walking into the living room. She eyed the easy affection between the two teens with open distaste. "So is this what 'keeping it cazh' looks like these days?"

"Actually," Jesse replied with a smirk, his arm tightening around Rachel's waist, "Rachel and I have been together for a while now."

"Oh really?" Shelby fumed.

"What's the matter, Coach? I kind of got the impression that you were rooting for us two crazy kids to get back together." Shelby's hand itched to slap the smug expression off her protege's face but did not dare to pursue that line of questioning in case Jesse decided to tell her daughter exactly why that had seemed like a good idea at the time (although now she was seriously re-thinking that notion).

"So what exactly were you saying about Jesse saving your little play?" Shelby asked Rachel.

"Oh Mom, you should have seen it. Jesse walked into our rehearsal and just took over Tim's part – he _was _Seymour. This is going to be the best musical Carmel High has ever staged, there can be no doubt." Rachel was so ecstatic she was oblivious to the tension in the room. She dashed across to her mother and threw her arms around her. "Thank you, thank you, thank you for letting Jesse audition for the Dramagiks!"

What could Shelby say to that, with her daughter hugging the stuffing out of her and Jesse smirking at her from across the room, just daring her to burst Rachel's bubble. She had a flash of déjà vu to that time many months ago when she had wandered across the auditorium's backstage and saw Jesse and Rachel locked in a passionate kiss. Only this time she was the one in Rachel's embrace and it was him giving the knowing nod of the puppetmaster.

"I think Jesse deserves most of the credit for this decision," Shelby said, deciding to turn the tables. "'After all, he is the one who chose to give up his place in Vocal Adrenaline so he could truly devote his energies to the play." This of course had Rachel bouncing back into Jesse's arms, gazing adoringly up at him like he had just cured cancer.

"Yeah, well," Jesse feigned coolness while mentally cursing Shelby, "who needs another nationals trophy, right? I've already got 3 of them."

"Such a selfless attitude," Shelby said with false sweetness. "Rachel Honey, why don't you run out to the garage fridge and fetch a bottle of ginger beer – I think this moment calls for a celebration."

As soon as Rachel had raced out of the room, Shelby hissed "You cannot be serious! That stupid play? You'd really give up performing at nationals for a high school musical, because I was deadly serious when I said you cannot do both. What can you possibly hope to gain from this?"

"Her," Jesse replied calmly. "I'll gain Rachel."

"Not if I have anything to say about it," Shelby snapped.

"But you won't have any say in it," Jesse replied, taking a step forward. Shelby saw the steel in his body, the firm line of his jaw. Now that she was no longer his director, her power to intimidate him was broken. "Rachel and I are a fact, Shelby. If you try to break us up, you're just going to hurt your relationship with her. And I don't think you can afford to risk that."

"And why is that?" his former coach asked sarcastically, folding her arms.

"Because you're not the only option as far as parents go, are you? You don't even have legal custody – if Rachel walked out this door tonight and back home to her fathers, there's not a damn thing you can do about it." Shelby was silent but he could tell his words had hit their mark. "But if you play your cards right you might get a couple of years with her before she leaves for college, maybe she'll even come home for thanksgiving and Christmas. But whichever way you look at it, your time with Rachel has an expiry date while mine is unlimited. So I'd advise you not to get between us again because this time I'll be there to make sure that she doesn't give you another chance."

"How dare you," Shelby spat, trembling with a mix of anger and fear. "You can't talk to me that way! I made you, Jesse St James, and I can just as easily end you. If you think I am going to let you waltz in and take my daughter – "

"I found it," Rachel called, coming through the connecting door backwards as she carried a tray with 3 champagne glasses filled with ginger beer. "Who's ready to celebrate?"

"Excellent," Jesse responded, all traces of menace vanishing. He handed a glass to Shelby who was barely managing to control her fury as she watched the boy she had poured all her expertise into over the last 4 years slip a proprietary arm around her daughter's waist, smirking at her from the united front he had created. "I think this calls for a toast."

"What shall we toast?" Rachel asked, lifting her glass.

"Hmmm," Jesse pretended to consider the question. "Well, as this is the first of many musicals you and I will no doubt co-star in, let's toast to the beginning of a new era."

"I'll drink to that," Rachel giggled as she clinked her glass against Jesse's. "To the reign of St Berry – Broadway's future power couple."

"It's an inevitability," Jesse agreed, smiling fondly at his girlfriend before leaning down to brush his lips against hers. Then he raised his head and his glass to Shelby in silent challenge. "Aren't you going to toast us, Coach?"

"To inevitabilities," Shelby repeated impassively, tossing back the fizzy drink. Jesse could take that for capitulation if he wanted, but more fool him if he did. This was not over, not by any reckoning. Shelby had waited too long to get her daughter back to let some smarmy curly-haired _actor_ steal her away. Whatever it takes, she would not be separated from her baby girl again.

Whatever it takes.

**A.N. Mwwwahhahaha! I am really getting a kick out of evil Shelby. Not that she's really evil in this story, just a control freak with other people's lives which is pretty much canon – I'm just going to take it a tiny step further. Please review if you'd like to see what she has in store for our favourite couple.**


	10. Chapter 10

**A.N. I'm back with an extra long chapter so please don't be stingy with the feedback. My special thanks to all those who reviewed the last chapter. Your comments were much appreciated.**

For the past three weeks Shelby had been biting her tongue to keep herself from screaming as Rachel lived and breathed the musical. She knew from her own experiences on and off Broadway that when she was rehearsing for a play anybody who was not involved in the production were just ghosts on the periphery while the co-stars and crew became her new family. She could see this happening to her daughter as she became immersed in her role; she would talk for hours on her cell phone to Marcie, Petra and the other Dramagiks about every nuance and detail of the play, but whenever she interacted with Shelby it was like she was only half there, always polite of course but her mind obviously on more important things.

And always there was Jesse. As her romantic interest in both the play and real life, Rachel had fallen doubly back in love with him. He was with her every possible minute of the day and more than once Shelby had surprised him making a nocturnal visit to Rachel's bedroom (after the third time it happened she installed security bars on Rachel's window). She racked her brain to think of a way she could keep him away from her daughter but she feared that forbidding the relationship would only result in Rachel leaving Shelby and going back to her doting fathers who would never deny her anything she wanted and certainly not her charming devoted boyfriend. Of course Shelby could always try to sabotage Jesse's scholarship with UCLA – all it would take was an anonymous tip and the name of the Asian kid who had actually pencilled Jesse's name on his SAT exam but both she and Jesse knew she would never do that. Even though the arrogant boy had fallen out of her favour, the mentor in her could not hinder his certain rise to fame. Not only because he was a reflection of her teaching, but she felt that it would be a crying shame if the world did not get to witness his talent. It was the same feeling she got whenever Rachel performed. In a way, she saw these two young people as her own creations – their success would be her success. All the sacrifices and hard work of her youth would not have been wasted, because when that day came that they would accept their Tony awards, Grammies and Oscars, she knew that she would own a piece of their victories.

It was the day before opening night for _Little Shop _when Puck came over to pick up Beth after rehearsal. Rachel had dragged Puck into her little show circle when she had decreed that no-one else could more perfectly play the part of Orin Scrivello, the sadistic dentist and Audrey's abusive boyfriend. Puck had argued that he wasn't even a student at Carmel but Petra and Jesse between them had pulled some strings making him an honorary Carmelite for the duration of the play. This had resulted in Shelby and Beth spending many afternoons together (she had rearranged the VA rehearsal schedule to accommodate the arrangement). She always waved off Puck's thanks for helping out with the babysitting, for in fact she looked forward to the time she spent with the adorable little girl.

Even though Shelby still had that ache of regret at the reminder of how much she had missed out on every time she held Beth, in a way it fed a different hunger in her. She sometimes fantasised about what would have happened if Puck and Quinn had agreed to let her adopt Beth and she had become solely responsible for this tiny little human being that was completely dependent on her for food, shelter and love. A baby would not leave her, not for another 18 years at least. She wouldn't have to worry about boyfriends or fathers taking her away, or having her decisions questioned, her rules disregarded. The fantasies were pleasant, but whenever Beth made Puck's pouty face when something was denied her or she saw the tired beauty from the hospital in her green eyes, she was reminded that this baby was not hers. She knew plenty of adults adopted, and in their eyes those children were as much theirs as any child born to them could be, but Shelby could not resist the pull of blood, not when she saw so much of herself in her teenage daughter. When she witnessed all the natural talent Rachel had inherited from her (that talent being the very reason the Berrys selected her as their surrogate), she felt such a fierce pride that she knew a stranger's baby would not be able to inspire. Her ideal scenario would be to get pregnant and do it all over again the right way this time, but her gynaecologist had ruled that possibility out for good. Rachel was the only child she would ever have, and every day Shelby felt her slipping away a little more.

"Thanks again for watching my Beth," Puck said as he scooped the squirming infant out of Shelby's arms. "You really are saving my bacon, Jewishness notwithstanding."

"Yes, you are definitely making an important contribution to the success of our play by freeing up one of its stars," Rachel agreed as she closed the door behind her.

"Where's your shadow?" Shelby asked her daughter with raised eyebrow.

"I told Jesse we should not spend any time together until tomorrow night at the opening, as it will build up our natural longing for each other and give even greater dramatic effect to our performance," Rachel explained.

"Yeah, like you can go 24 hours without seeing each other," Puck scoffed. "You'll both be shaking messes before dawn if you don't get your lovin' fix every hour."

"For your information, Jesse and I are professionals and as such are perfectly capable of sublimating our own desires to the good of the play."

"I'm just sayin', it ain't wise going cold turkey like that in case all that 'mating desire' explodes all over the stage when you finally see each other. You don't want your dads getting an eyeful of that from the front row," Puck teased.

"Her dads?" Shelby interrupted the two friends' banter. "The Berrys are coming tomorrow night? How do you know that?"

Rachel looked a little panicked under her mother's penetrating gaze. "Uh... they told me?"

"When did they tell you?" Shelby tried to moderate her accusing tone. "I mean, I wasn't aware that you were in contact with them."

"Not really, I mean just the usual techno communication – the occasional email, the random text message. Maybe a little skyping here and there..."

"Skyping?" That was the next best thing to physical presence in Shelby's book. "You never told me you were skyping with your fathers."

"It must have slipped my mind, me being so busy with the play and all," Rachel said, feeling guilty but not sure why. Surely there was nothing wrong with trying to maintain a relationship with her fathers? Yet she had sensed Shelby might be hurt if she knew; it was the same reason she had not mentioned her mother to her fathers when she was growing up. She decided now the murder was out, she may as well give full disclosure. "Actually, we've been talking about spending part of the summer together."

"What? You mean – you're moving back in with them?"

"No, not really, but things are much better with them now, we are communicating more, and I was thinking and Jesse agreed that it would be a good thing to include them more actively in my life. And with summer coming up, that will give us plenty of time to work on our fathers-daughter bond." Rachel quickly moved to wrap her arms around Shelby's waist in reassurance. "But I don't plan on moving out, just visiting them over the summer and maybe spending weekends with them when school is in session."

"I see," Shelby said quietly, rubbing Rachel's back absent-mindedly. "And Jesse agrees, does he?"

"Look on the bright side, Shell," Puck interjected, "now you'll get regular breaks from her constant yapping; I like to call them 'sanity breaks'."

"Get away with you," Rachel scowled, slapping Puck's arm as she herded him to the front door. "And remember, if you eat any dairy between now and tomorrow night I will make you pay."

"Yeah, yeah, I know. I swear, if this role didn't let me wear a leather jacket and ride a motorcycle on stage, it would not be worth you messing with my eats."

"Love you too, Noah," Rachel smirked, closing the door behind him. The smirk disappeared when she saw the expressionless mask that was her mother's face. "Mom?" she ventured. "You're not upset with me, are you?"

"Upset? No, why would I be upset?" Shelby replied.

"Because your voice just went up an octave like it does when something is freaking you out."

"Don't be silly," Shelby laughed unconvincingly. "I'm fine. Maybe a little confused as to why you never told me about any of this, a little hurt that Jesse knows more about what is going on with your life than I do, but aside from that – not a care in the world."

Rachel sighed. "I'm sorry, I just didn't want to risk hurting your feelings by letting on how much I miss them. Jesse knows about it because his relationship with his father is estranged – they hardly talk anymore and when they do it's never meaningful. He didn't want to see the same thing happen to me so he encouraged me not to shut them out."

"It is nice to see what a positive influence Jesse has on you," Shelby said with a smile that completely fooled her daughter. She responded with a blinding one of her own.

"Yes, he is rather wonderful, isn't he?" she agreed. She jumped slightly when her cell phone vibrated in her pocket and eagerly fished it out to grin at the text message on her screen. "It's from Jesse," she squealed. "He says he misses me like Melchior missed Wendla when he was sent to the reform school for juvenile offenders."

"I thought you and Mr Wonderful were on lock down until tomorrow night?" Shelby mused as Rachel raced towards the stairs to begin a 2 hour texting session with her boyfriend in the privacy of her bedroom.

"Texts don't count," was the answer as Rachel's door shut behind her. Shelby sighed as she faced another evening of her own company.

GLEE / GLEE / GLEE / GLEE / GLEE / GLEE / GLEE / GLEE / GLEE / GLEE /

_She is amazing_, was the thought repeating in a loop as Shelby watched her daughter own the stage. Every note was perfect, every movement flawless, her delivery impeccable. Rachel was fortunate to have such worthy co-stars as Jesse and Puck or otherwise she would have upstaged the entire production (Puck's singing ability was impressive and her respect for Will Schuester's musical judgement plummeted for not making Puck the male lead for New Directions).

As the final scene ended with Seymour and Audrey walking off hand in hand to begin a new life together, the audience rose to their feet in enthusiastic applause. Rachel's prophecy had come true; it was easily the most successful musical Carmel had ever staged.

"Shelby!" she heard her name called and turned to see Hiram Berry waving his arm at her. She moved down the aisle towards them to find their faces wreathed in smiles, beaming with pride much like she imagined her own was.

"So? What did you think of our little star?" Leroy prompted. "Amazing, wasn't she? Just amazing." _What, he reads minds now?_ Shelby thought.

"A tour de force," Hiram concurred. "It was even better than when she played Annie in that community theatre production when she was nine."

"Or even her dramatic soliloquy from Macbeth that won her Little Miss Cleveland when she was six," Leroy pointed out.

"Or how about the time – "

"OK, I get it," Shelby cut in. "You've been watching Rachel dazzle on stage since she started walking."

"Oh, it was before the walking. She won her first singing competition when she was 8 months old."

"She was very musically verbal," Hiram nodded.

"Hiram, we are being a little insensitive here," Leroy said, linking his arm through his partner's. "Shelby doesn't have our history with Rachel. We shouldn't rub it in."

_I don't have a history with her because you made me sign that contract_, Shelby thought but didn't say. Instead, she smiled tightly and said "Well, I can't rewrite the past but I assure you I don't intend on missing any of Rachel's performances from now on."

Hiram and Leroy flashed smiles even tighter at her response but their passive-aggressive sparring match was interrupted when Rachel burst upon their little group and enveloped each of her parents in fierce hugs.

"Wasn't it fantastic? Everything just pulled together beautifully! Even the explosions in the final scene worked perfectly and I was rather worried about them because Noah set the fireworks up but no-one caught on fire or missed their cues and Jesse was sooo good and what did you think of my performance? Did you like it? Was I believable or did I go a little over the top?"

"Sweetheart, you were so believable I'm planning on going after that Puckerman boy later for ever laying a hand on you, even if it was in the script," Hiram vowed, kissing Rachel's head as she cuddled against him.

"Don't worry, Mr B, I've already taken care of him," Jesse quipped as he strolled into the family group. "But you can help me hide the body."

"Jesse!" The Fathers Berry hailed the young man with fondness; he was obviously a favourite of theirs. Trust Jesse to reinforce his position by winning over the protective fathers, Shelby thought. "A splendid performance tonight, my boy! Just splendid."

"It is plain to see that Rachel has met her match," Leroy declared, shaking Jesse's hand.

"In more ways than one, I should think," Jesse replied charmingly, encircling an arm around his girlfriend.

There were more compliments and laughter before Jesse excused both himself and Rachel as the school principal had some show business alumni who were anxious to meet the two stars. Shelby was impressed; this was an honour usually reserved for Vocal Adrenaline performances.

"So, Shelby," Hiram began, his voice switching to a more serious tone, "No doubt Rachel has mentioned about our plans for the summer."

"Of course," Shelby replied. "I am fully in my daughter's confidence." Even if she did have to cross examine her daughter like she was a hostile witness.

"I think it's important that things start going back to normal," Leroy said in his most legal manner. "Now that Rachel has had her little rebellion and explored her roots, it's best that she return to her real life."

"You mean back to Lima," Shelby deduced, "because everyone knows that Carmel is just an alternate reality."

"Now, Shelby, let's be reasonable about this," Leroy said. "We all know that her living with you was just a temporary situation."

"We are willing to allow you visitation rights, however," Hiram said.

"Within reason," Leroy added.

"What about her schooling?" Shelby asked a little desperately. "She has friends here at Carmel. She was bullied at McKinley."

"She never mentioned being bullied to us," Hiram argued. "And she has friends at McKinley. Puck and Finn and her glee club."

"I thought they disbanded that?"

"Didn't Noah tell you? Principal Figgins had a change of heart and gave them another year. I'm sure Rachel will want to be a part of its rebirth – it meant the world to her, after all."

"Look, there is no need to get upset," Hiram said placatingly. "We're not talking about taking Rachel home with us tonight. We'll let her finish the school year at Carmel, she can come stay with us over the summer and then... well, things will just go back to the way they're supposed to be."

"And if I have a problem with the way they're supposed to be?" Shelby asked, crossing her arms over her chest.

"You don't really have a choice in the matter, Shelby. Neither does Rachel, for that matter, no matter how indulgent we sometimes are with her. So I advise you to enjoy your time together while you can and then prove yourself to be a good mother by giving her back to the two people who were meant to be her parents."

"Wow," Shelby said, shaking her head. "Major flashback to Lima maternity ward, 1994."

"One more thing," Leroy said. "About Jesse."

"We're slightly worried," Hiram said.

"St James? I thought you two were huge fans?"

"While we think he is in many ways perfect for Rachel, he does have three strikes against him; one, he's 2 years older than her, two, he's leaving for UCLA soon and three, he is a hormonally rampaging teenage boy."

"What Leroy is trying to say is we don't really have an objection to them seeing each other so long as they are seeing each other with their clothes... on."

"I mean, we don't have to tell you how devastating it would be to all our hopes and dreams for Rachel if she were to get pregnant thanks to some fleeting teenage crush."

"I sometimes wake up at 2.00 am in a cold sweat from that very nightmare," Leroy shuddered. Hiram patted his hand soothingly.

"You know how unlikely that is, honey," Hiram said. "No-one knows better than Rachel how disastrous those consequences would be for her. We've been telling her since she was eight – wait until you're 25 and have a Tony in one hand and a wedding ring on the other."

"I know, I know. But teenage lust can be a powerful force. We would just feel better if while she was staying with you, Shelby, you could watch out for any escalation in their courtship."

Looking back, Shelby would pinpoint this as the moment when a tiny dark seed was planted in her mind. A seed that would grow into an idea, then a plan, then actions which would give her everything she had ever wanted. If she was willing to close her eyes to the cost, a cost that would be paid by the people she loved.

But at this moment it was no more than a spider web ghosting across her cheek, a passing fancy not to be taken too seriously but perhaps to be speculated on later. Unlikely to ever happen, but still...

"I guess it is a mother's place to have that kind of talk with her daughter," Shelby told Rachel's fathers. "I'll see what I can do."

**A.N. Can you guess what that tiny dark seed is? You may think you know but trust me, you don't. Or maybe you do, if your mind is as twisted as mine. Fear not, all will be revealed... in a few chapters time!**


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 11

**A.N. So apparently I suck at subtle plot twists because pretty much all my reviewers guessed the gist of what is coming (although I still have a few surprises up my sleeve). Perhaps Shelby manipulating Jesse and Rachel into reproducing is not just my own pet fantasy. As one reviewer noted, why would Shelby send a sexually active high school senior to "befriend" her 15 year old daughter unless, like Jesse, "befriend" and "seduce" are the same thing in her vocab? It does make one wonder.**

"Déjà vu," Rachel murmured to Jesse as they slouched down in their seats at the back of the auditorium. It was the week after their play had finished its run, to much acclaim, so they found themselves with quite a bit of spare time on their hands. Although most of that spare time was happily filled with make out sessions that continued to escalate in intensity, now the two singing mavins were starting to feel the call of the stage again so they had decided to sneak into the closed rehearsal and see what Vocal Adrenaline were preparing for Nationals.

"What is?" Jesse stage whispered, wrapping his arm around her shoulders and bringing her against his body.

"Sneaking into a Vocal Adrenaline rehearsal. The first time was to find you – "

"Ah yes, the rape whistle," Jesse remembered fondly.

"Then the next time was when I heard Shelby singing "Funny Girl" and I realised she was my mom."

"Do you ever regret that moment? I mean, finding Shelby did kind of derail your whole life. Do you ever wish I hadn't interfered and you could have kept your blissful ignorance?"

Rachel shook her head against his shoulder. "Although your methods were dubious, I can't say I'm not happy with the end result. I mean I finally have the mother I've been longing for all my life and I'm mending fences with my dads. Not to mention I get to attend a school where I am not ritually tormented and belittled."

"Aren't you forgetting something? What about the devastatingly handsome and monstrously talented boyfriend who lights up your day?" Jesse asked with raised brow.

"Yeah, he's alright," Rachel shrugged. Jesse's response of course was to dig his fingers into her most ticklish spot under her ribs until Rachel was laughing and gasping (luckily the music was loud enough to cover their antics so they remained undiscovered). "Enough, please, I surrender!"

"Surrender, hmm? What shall I claim as my prize?" Jesse smirked.

"Whatever you want," she answered simply.

Detecting the absence of teasing in her words, Jesse quickly raised his gaze which had been fixated on her plump lips to her eyes which were shining with love. His mouth went dry as he processed what her few words promised.

"Are you sure?" he said a little hoarsely. "I mean, I know you wanted to wait until we were married and I completely respect that. I don't want you to feel pressured in any way."

"I don't. I'm ready, Jesse. In fact, I've been ready for the last month. And every time we touch I feel so ready I could explode."

Jesse laughed at her wry tone. "How do you think I feel?"

By way of response, Rachel crawled onto his lap, circled her arms around his neck and kissed him with decadent abandon. "You feel wonderful to me."

Jesse smoothed her silky hair behind her ear and held her eyes with his own. "I love you, Rachel." It was both a statement and a promise.

"I love you, Jesse," Rachel vowed. "Always."

"And forever," Jesse finished.

A few minutes later when their heart beats returned to normal, Jesse asked "So if you've been ready for a month, how come this is the first I've heard about it?"

"Yes, well, emotionally I've been ready but there were a few mental roadblocks I had to overcome." At her boyfriend's quizzical look, Rachel elaborated. "You see, for years my fathers have warned me against having sex before I was properly established in life because of the devastating effects an unwanted pregnancy would have on my career. And if I ever thought they were exaggerating, witnessing the fallout from Quinn Fabray's teen pregnancy removed all doubts. That was the main reason I wanted to wait – I was afraid of ending up like Quinn and having to give up Broadway before I even got to take my shot at it."

"Baby, you should have told me. You know I would never put you at that kind of risk. I'm not Noah Puckerman – I know how to use contraception responsibly."

"So does Noah, usually. He told me with Quinn the condom broke."

"You don't have to worry about that. Shelby issues all the VA people these top quality condoms – guaranteed foolproof."

"Your teacher gives you condoms? Isn't that kind of – inappropriate?"

"It's just part of Shelby's control-freak issues. She doesn't want any unexpected surprises interfering with her show choir, and she knows what an incestuous lot they are – the constant rehearsals don't allow for much of a social life so everybody pairs up with each other and sex tends to be the most popular way of letting off steam."

"But you're not in VA anymore – how are you still getting this... er.. fringe benefit?"

"I may not be in Vocal Adrenaline but I am dating Shelby's daughter – I guess that is a good enough reason to keep me well supplied." Truth be told Jesse had been surprised yesterday when Shelby had called him to her office and then silently slid the box of condoms across to him before curtly dismissing him. It was an unspoken acceptance of his relationship with Rachel he had not expected from her, considering the stormy looks she had cast his way every time she saw them together. He had to assume she had finally admitted defeat in her attempts to come between her daughter and protégé.

"I think Shelby is much more laid back about all this sex stuff than my dads," Rachel said. "Which makes sense because they have always been squeamish about all the female parts of my upbringing, usually sending me to one of my aunts to talk about any womanly issues. But my mom sat me down last week and told me how natural and normal sex is and so long as I was in a loving, monogamous relationship and provided I'm on birth control and my partner uses a condom, realistically, there is no risk of pregnancy. Then she gave me some birth control pills which she said are top of the range with a 100% success rate. I've been taking them all week so I should be safe now."

"That is... surprisingly cool of her," Jesse said. "It almost make me wish – " his thought was interrupted by Shelby's tortured shriek of anguish.

"Stop! For the love of God, just stop this putrid display before my ears start bleeding."

Jesse and Rachel jumped in their seats, thinking they had been discovered, until they realised it was her show choir Shelby was denouncing.

"That was the most boring, uninspired piece of drivel I have ever witnessed. It makes me long for the performances that were like watching beige paint dry – I obviously never realised how good I had it!" Shelby blasted.

"Was it really that bad? I wasn't watching," Rachel whispered to Jesse.

"That's a sign of the times right there – ordinarily, you can't help watching VA perform, the spectacle demands your attention. Sadly, my former teammates just turned Nirvana into elevator music."

"You miss it, don't you?" Jesse shrugged noncommittally. "Jesse!" Rachel said in her warning voice.

"So much it's like I lost a piece of my soul," he admitted in a hollow voice.

"Drama queen," Rachel murmured affectionately.

"It's not our fault," Rachel's mortal enemy, Giselle, whined defensively to her coach. "You've always trained us to support the most talented performer, to blend into the background so the star can shine. Without a star, we're just a chorus line. If you just let me take the lead, I'm sure we can – "

"You're not good enough to carry the lead, Giselle," Shelby said, running a frustrated hand through her hair. "I've tried each of you on lead and none of you are good enough to win us first place at Nationals." Shelby sighed dejectedly and gathered together her sheet music. "Just – go home, kids. I'll figure something out, just – go."

The show choir remained on stage even after Shelby had left; they could not believe Shelby had actually ended a VA rehearsal early (an unprecedented event).

"Should we go?" one of the freshman members asked timidly.

"And have Shelby hand our asses to us if she changes her mind and comes back to find we've left? No thanks," Giselle replied in a contemptuous tone.

"I wonder if I might offer a solution," a voice spoke, approaching the stage from the auditorium.

"Who's that? This is a closed rehearsal," the Latina girl, Cara, said.

"Well, if it isn't the midget dramagik and her traitor boyfriend," Giselle sneered as she identified the pair. "What are you doing here?"

"We were supposed to be checking out the latest Vocal Adrenaline masterpiece," Jesse replied, "but all we could hear was this annoying droning sound. Nothing like the nationally ranking show choir I used to know."

"Hey, you don't get to walk out on us and then criticise a mess of your making," Cara said, stepping forward angrily.

"People, please! All this fighting is not going to do anyone any good." Rachel clapped her hands together to command their attention. "For all the unscrupulous intimidation practices of Vocal Adrenaline that I disliked, I always admired your dedication as a team to do whatever it takes to win. Now, if that still holds true, you will set aside your issues with Jesse and I and listen to what I have to say."

"Dude, she's like a mini-Shelby," one of his old team mates whispered to Jesse. The other VA's were thinking along the same lines because they automatically switched into student mode as Rachel began to pace in front of them and outline her plan.

GLEE / GLEE / GLEE / GLEE / GLEE / GLEE / GLEE / GLEE / GLEE / GLEE /

Shelby walked into the early morning rehearsal trying to muster up some sense of hope that her choir had magically transformed itself over the last 3 days. She rubbed her forehead tiredly, her restless night having left her with a dull headache. Apparently worry and guilt were not an emotional cocktail conducive to sleep.

"Okay guys, let's run through _Teen Spirit_ one more time," she declared, settling herself into the director's chair.

"Actually," Cara said, motioning to the band, "We've been working on something a little more... fresh."

Shelby frowned as an unfamiliar song began to play and was just opening her mouth to object when she heard her daughter's voice ring melodiously from the stage.

_**Hail Caesar shadow on my backseat  
And his friends are standing right in front of me  
World wide from the Cimmaron to Turkey  
Open up, said everybody loves me  
And you don't have to make a sound  
'Cause they got what you need, what you need Oh, oh, oh, oh**_

From the opposite side of the stage Jesse appeared, stalking towards Rachel and claiming the next verse, his words an open challenge.

_**Got love for the people that have warned you  
God love all your sentimental virtue  
Eight balls with the takers that'll make you  
Lay cards with the lovers that'll hate you  
And you don't have to make a sound  
They got what you need,  
what you need  
Make you say **_

[everyone] _**Oh my, feels just like I don't try  
Look so good I might die  
All I know is everybody loves me  
Head down, swaying to my own sound  
Flashes in my face now **_

_**All I know is everybody loves me  
Everybody loves me,  
Everybody loves me**_

Shelby watched, mesmerised, as Vocal Adrenaline belted out the One Republic hit, her once lacklustre choir energised by the firetrail that Rachel and Jesse left in their wake. The two leads paced around each other as though sizing the other up until coming together with dance moves so smouldering Shelby half expected the teens to spontaneously combust on stage.

_**Don't need my health  
Got my name and got my wealth  
I stare at the sun  
Just for kicks all by myself  
I lose track of time So I might be past my prime  
But I'm feeling, oh so good Yeahhh  
**_

Rachel got chills from the way Jesse drew out that last note. She was tempted to look at her mother, to see if the worried creases on her face had been smoothed out, but kept her focus on Jesse like the professional she was. She just hoped her mother would take their interference in the right spirit – an attempt to help.

_**Oh my, feels just like I don't try  
Look so good I might die  
All I know is everybody loves me  
Head down, swaying to my own sound  
Flashes in my face now  
All I know is everybody loves me  
Everybody loves me  
Don't you know who you are?  
Everybody Everybody Everybody Whoa, yeah**_

As Rachel set free those last joyous notes, a silence filled the auditorium, broken only by the panting of her fellow performers, recovering from their exertions. Then they heard it; the steady click of designer heels as Shelby slowly walked towards the stage. Her face gave nothing away as her features were revealed by the stagelights.

"And what are two dramagiks doing on my stage?" Shelby mused. "This rehearsal is for Vocal Adenaline members only."

Rachel's face fell at her mother's words. "We thought... we just wanted to help."

"What makes you think I need your help?"

"Last Monday's performance, for starters," Jesse interjected, bringing his mentor's glare down on him. Rachel nudged her boyfriend into silence and then approached her mother, speaking softly.

"I noticed how distracted and worried you've been these last 2 weeks."

Shelby looked away, suddenly unable to meet her daughter's eyes. "Yes, well, stress is a normal part of a choir director's life."

"I also know that if it weren't for my play, Jesse would have never left Vocal Adrenaline and you would have no reason to doubt your next Nationals victory." Rachel took her mother's hand, clasping it warmly. "Mom, you have done so much for me to make my dreams come true; please let me return the favour."

Shelby finally met her daughter's innocent eyes to find her own suddenly misty. "You've already done that, just by being here," she choked out. Rachel smiled widely and embraced her mother, who clung to her child as though she never wanted to let go. When Rachel finally pulled away, she asked eagerly "But did you like our performance? I thought One Republic would be novel choice as they have not been overdone like the more classic artists and their spellbinding harmonies are perfect for show choir."

"Not to mention you and St James have egos that fit that song like a glove," Giselle added, but with less snideness than usual.

Shelby addressed her choir. "Overall, I'd have to say, your song choice, execution and general performance was...brilliant." An astonished gasp was heard in perfect synchronicity at this judgement from their coach, who was usually much more sparing of her praise. "Not that there isn't room for improvement." There was the coach they knew!

"So, we have our group number, now we have to come up with a solo just as electrifying. Jesse, Rachel; any thoughts?" Shelby asked.

"Well, I have become partial to a certain Carly Simon song recently," Rachel said, glancing furtively towards Jesse. "I don't know if it's suitable for nationals though."

"Let's hear it and find out," Shelby said, taking a seat in the front row. Her heart swelled with love as she watched her daughter give instruction to the band. She could not believe how close she had come to disaster, hatching that crazy, desperate scheme. As soon as she got home, she would set things to rights. Rachel and Jesse would never have to know...

_**Nobody does it better  
Makes me feel sad for the rest  
Nobody does it half as good as you  
Baby, you're the best**_

_Oh God no_, Shelby's conscience shrieked. _Calm down_, her common sense ordered sternly. _It's probably just a song. No reason to think_ _she's singing about Jesse._

_**I wasn't lookin', but somehow you found me  
I tried to hide from your love light  
But like heaven above me  
The spy who loved me  
Is keeping all my secrets safe tonight  
**_

_It's official. _Shelby groaned. _I'm the worst mother ever._

**A.N. I heard "The Spy Who Loved Me" on the radio a few months ago and thought what a perfect St Berry song – Jesse, the Vocal Adrenaline spy who seduced and fell for our favourite diva. Ever since I've been scheming of a way to work it into a story! **


	12. Chapter 12

**A.N. Yesterday I had a review asking me if I was ever going to update this story. I had this unfinished chapter sitting on my computer so I thought it may as well be put to use out there in cyberspace. You can see from the development in this chapter that I have opened up for myself a whole new story instead of neatly finishing the one I had started. That is my flaw, I can never find a good place to stop. My author****'****s note at the end unveils my solution to the corner I have painted myself into. Anyhow, if anyone is still following this story, I hope you enjoy.**

2 months later...

"I don't have to go," Jesse said for the tenth time.

"Jesse, this is not a discussion for the airport departure gate," Rachel sniffed as she burrowed further into his arms.

"No, seriously, I could always go to Ohio State and then I'd be able to visit you on the weekends – ".

"Lord help me, my boyfriend is insane," Rachel declared dramatically. "Need I remind you that it has been your lifelong dream to attend UCLA _and_ that they are offering you a full ride. Considering how unsupportive your parents are of your career goals, you need that scholarship to become the star you are destined to be. You know if you asked your parents to pay for college it would be conditional on you majoring in some soul-destroying topic like – like foreclosing mortgages on widows and tiny orphans."

"I don't think tiny orphans apply for many loans," Jesse replied. "They have a hard time reaching the bank teller window." His girlfriend gave a watery chuckle as she reluctantly pulled back from his embrace.

"You and me, we're going to be fine, Jess," she promised with a small smile. "We'll talk and skype everyday and there will be vacations to look forward to."

"Provided Shelby and your dads all get personality transplants and allow their little girl to visit her college boyfriend in the City of Sin."

"You know my mom has become a lot more accepting of our relationship since we handed her another Nationals trophy to round out her collection. And the fact that I'm still living with her is proof positive that my fathers cannot withstand my powers of persuasion."

"Largely due to your ability to cry on demand."

"So don't worry about me. I promise, nothing is going to come between us. Always and forever, remember?"

_This is the final boarding call for the 2.30 flight to Los Angeles. Please make your way to Gate 12._

Rachel's world suddenly began to spin, whether it was from distress at Jesse's parting or the light-headedness and nausea that had been plaguing her lately, she could not tell. She took a deep calming breath, hiding her weakness by wrapping herself around her boyfriend once more. He had enough to worry about without throwing her vague symptoms into the mix.

Finally, with one last tortured but passionate kiss, Jesse reluctantly parted from Rachel. His last picture of her before he walked through the departure gate was of her bravely smiling, tears watering her cheeks as she waved goodbye. As he swiped the moisture from his own eyes with his shirt sleeve and strode down the gangway, he muttered her words to himself as though they were a lucky talisman – _always and forever_.

2 years later...

"Welcome to Ohio," the overly cheery flight attendant said as Jesse exited the plane. He grimaced at the words, finding the idea of Ohio being welcoming incongruous. It was the first time he had set foot on the soil of his home state in two years. As he walked through the arrival gate, he paused and his heartbeat kicked up a notch as a petite brunette dashed out of the awaiting crowd and ran towards him with outstretched arms – breezing past him to wrap herself around a tall boy in a hockey jersey that had sat across from him during his flight, snoring obnoxiously most of the way. Jesse smiled wryly at his fleeting hope that it was his small brunette come to greet him; he knew full well how unlikely that was.

Just when he was about to inquire about where to find the rental car desk, he heard "Yo, St James."

"Puck?" Jesse said doubtfully. His old cast mate swaggered forward, looking much the same with one alteration. "I see Animal Protection finally removed the dead squirrel from your skull."

"Nice to see you too, St Jerk." Puck gestured to the baggage claim. "C'mon, grab your shit and let's roll before someone notices I'm parked in an ambulance bay."

Soon Jesse was striding to keep up with Puck while dragging a large suitcase and three pieces of carry-on (Puck's gallantry ended at driving services so he was unencumbered). The silence was not broken until they were speeding down the expressway heading to Lima in Puck's black Range Rover.

"So," Puck opened. "what brings you back to small town Ohio?"

Jesse shrugged. "Apparently you can only go so many years before your parents demand an appearance. It's my Dad's 50th this Saturday and it would have been awkward for him to explain to all his distinguished guests why his son wasn't around." Jesse looked over at Puck whose tension was betrayed by his tight grip on the steering wheel. "Who told you to pick me up?"

"Who do you think?" Jesse's heart sped up.

"You mean..."

"Shelby," the young man finished, looking with slight pity at Jesse.

Jesse's face fell at this news. "How did she know?" he said, more to himself.

"How does Shelby know any of the things she's got no business knowing? I guess you don't get to the top of the show choir world without picking up some mafia-type skills. She asked me to do her a favour and hell knows I owe her plenty with all the help she's given me with Beth and then pulling strings to set me up with a scholarship at NYU. I figured delivering your ass to her was the least I could do."

"So this is less of a friendly airport pick-up and more of a hostage situation?" Jesse asked dryly.

"Pretty much. You pissed?"

"While a dose of Shelby Corcoran is not my ideal way to wind down from a 21 hour flight, I guess I don't have much choice. So, Tisch, huh? Not bad, Puckerman. I always knew you had talent, to be honest I didn't think you had the drive to back it up."

"A lot has changed since you left, St James. I've got strong motivation to make something of my life now; I have a daughter to support and then there's Rachel..."

At last the R word was out there. Jesse cast a speculative look at Puck, the tension suddenly buzzing between them. "You and Rachel? Funny, I always pegged you as hopelessly in her 'friend zone', even if you obviously wanted more than that."

"Like I said, Dude," Puck replied with a hint of aggression, "Things change. You can't go off to school on the other side of the country and never look back and think everything's going to be just like you left it."

"You obviously have no idea what you're talking about, Puckerman, so I'd advise you to stop flaunting your ignorance." The aggression was on both sides now.

"What I know is when Rachel needed help I was the one there for her while you were sunning on some Malibu beach, probably next to some fake-boobed bimbo."

"Sounds like my ex didn't waste any time finding a new leading man to play off all her drama queen tendencies. So what new and exciting plot twists required your heroic assistance? Exactly what help did our little diva require?"

"Nothing that concerns you anymore, St James. In fact, everything Rachel is off limits for you, which I'm pretty sure is the gist of what Shelby has to say to you." Noah swerved into the Carmel High school gates and parked in front of a sign that read "Reserved – Puckerman – VA 2". Jesse raised an eyebrow as he made the connection.

"So you're in Vocal Adrenaline as well."

"Yep – male lead opposite Rachel."

"Well, congratulations, Puck. Looks like you've managed to take my place in almost every way. Although I like to think I did grow out of the role of Shelby's minion, but I'm sure you'll get there one day."

"Better watch that smart mouth, St James. I may sing with these overprivileged snots but scratch the surface and I'm still a street-fighter." He grabbed Jesse roughly by the arm. "Come on, let's get this over with."

"Hands off, petty thug," Jesse snarled, shaking off his hold. "I spent 4 years in this place, I think I can find Shelby without any help from you."

"Just make sure Shelby is the only Corcoran you find, or you and my guns will be having a heated discussion." With that, Puck turned away, pulling out what Jesse recognised as the latest Iphone, texting as he walked. Whether to warn Shelby or Rachel of his arrival, Jesse could only guess.

GLEE / GLEE / GLEE / GLEE / GLEE / GLEE / GLEE / GLEE / GLEE / GLEE /

Rachel poked a note from the piano, concentrating on singing through the sound. Her forehead was puckered in fierce concentration as she evaluated her rendering of the note. Her NYADA audition was next week and every decision leading up to it was utterly crucial. For NYADA meant New York and New York was the place where she would finally be free to live her dreams.

Strangely, that phrase had a new meaning to what it did 2 years ago. Back when Jesse was with her, before she and her mother had taken that trip to Peru.

A wave of longing washed over her as she remembered a time when her life seemed so uncomplicated and easy, although she knew the Rachel from 2009 would have strenuously denied those adjectives ever being applied to her life. Perspective really was everything.

"Not bad," a voice spoke from behind her, causing her skin to goose bump like crazy. "Your vocal range really has improved. Pity I can't say the same about your boyfriends." Rachel turned slowly to watch Jesse saunter across the stage towards her. "I mean, Puckerman? A decent enough guy, no doubt, but he would never be able to keep up with you."

"Jesse," Rachel breathed, heart beating rapidly. "What are you doing here?"

Jesse was silent as he stood within arms length, taking in the changes 2 years had wrought. Her hair was a little longer, her face a little thinner, her body even more desirable than he recalled, but it was her eyes that held him. As dark and expressive as ever, although looking somewhat strained. Rachel seemed to be stretched as tight as piano wire. He wondered if the upcoming college auditions were responsible, or whether it was something else.

"As a dutiful son I have answered a parental summons to make the necessary obeisance at my father's birthday celebrations," Jesse replied. He lowered his voice slightly as he asked, "Where's Shelby?"

Her answer was unnecessary as Shelby chose that moment to make an appearance. Entering from stage left, she did not notice Jesse as she was currently distracted by the wriggling bundle in her arms. "Rachel, do you have a spare pacifier for Cadence? Somehow she has already lost the three she started with this morning." That was when she finally noticed her former student, staring wide eyed at the adorable moppet held in her arms, who was staring back at him with wide dark brown eyes so similar to the pair he had just been searching.

"Jesse," Shelby said with slight distaste, snapping his attention back to her. "You were supposed to wait for me at my office."

"I guess I've lost the habit of obeying your orders, Shelby," Jesse answered, never taking his eyes away from the infant. "However, if you would like to switch to explanations instead of demands, you could start with introducing me to this young lady. I can't help noticing a strong family resemblance."

Rachel moved between them to take the little girl from her mother's arms, cradling her protectively as she glanced nervously between the two allies turned enemies. Jesse's intense gaze now encompassed them both.

"Hardly surprising," Shelby said. "The Corcoran genes are always quite dominant. You only need to look at Rachel to see that."

Jesse switched his attention sharply to Shelby. "You mean - "

"Isn't it obvious?" Shelby gave that irritating smug smile she used whenever she accepted another trophy. "Cadence is my daughter."

A.N. So that is as far as I got with the story and to be honest, recent Glee storylines have pretty much killed my interest in the show. However I put a lot into this story and I had outlined where I was taking it so I have decided to share that outline with my readers to give my tale some kind of closure. I need to flesh it out a bit more but promise to post it very soon.


	13. Chapter 13

Final Chapter

**A.N. As promised here is the ending to my story in condensed form. Sorry that I could not finish it properly but at least this will give some kind of closure.**

Shelby sends Jesse to wait for her at her office. When he leaves she turns to Rachel and asks if she knew he was coming. Rachel denies all knowledge, insists there is nothing between her and Jesse anymore, they have had no contact in almost 2 years. Shelby then talks to Jesse in her office, tells him Rachel is off limits, that she is with Puck now. Jesse says he has a girlfriend in California, he has no interest in Rachel.

Back at Shelby's house Shelby is preparing dinner as Rachel feeds Cadence. When Cadence calls Rachel "Mama" Shelby steps in and takes over. Reminds Rachel that Cadence should be calling Shelby "Mama" (for those who haven't guessed by now, Cadence is Rachel and Jesse's baby but Shelby has convinced everyone that she is the mother). Rachel holds back tears as Shelby goes over the old arguments, no-one must know Rachel is the mother as no prestigious college would accept her if she was known to be a teen mom and her dreams would be ruined. Also, her fathers would be so disappointed in her.

These old arguments prompt a flashback to 2 years ago when Rachel first found out she was pregnant and came to Shelby in tears for help and guidance. Shelby, full of guilt for what she had contrived and genuinely fearful of her daughter's future, promised she would fix everything, that she would make it so Rachel would have her dreams, her baby but not the burdens of parenthood. Shelby tells her daughter that if she will put herself in Shelby's hands she can have it all. On one condition; she cannot tell Jesse about the baby. Rachel protests, but Shelby argues that if she loves Jesse, she will hide this from him because if he knew he would probably drop out of college to support Rachel and the child and then both their bright futures would be ruined. So Rachel drops contact with Jesse. When she is too pregnant to hide it, her mother takes her "travelling" through South America. She gives birth to her daughter in a small clinic in Peru run by some shady characters who owe Shelby a favour. These people arrange to have the birth recorded with Shelby as the mother. They return to Ohio with the baby and no-one doubts that the baby is Shelby's. But it tears at Rachel's heart to not be able to claim her daughter as her own. Especially as Shelby becomes increasingly more possessive of Cadence, nudging Rachel out of her baby's life.

Switch to the aftermath of a Vocal Adrenaline rehearsal. Puck asks Rachel out to Breadsticks, she declines, says she is feeling tired. He asks if this has anything to do with Jesse. He had felt they were making real progress before her ex came back, that they were finally moving out of the "friend zone". He reminds her how much her mother likes them together, that he is sure half the reason she helped him get into Tisch was so that he would be there in New York to watch over Rachel. Rachel smiles and nods, promises they would have that date he wanted very soon, but she was too tired tonight.

She is the last to leave, is walking to her car when suddenly a hand grabs her arm and jerks her backwards. She turns around, swinging a fist, which catches Jesse's chin. He swears, she gasps in shock.

"Damn it, Rachel! Watch where you're pointing that thing," Jesse grumbles, rubbing his chin.

"Jesse!" Rachel cries. "What is it with you and pulling me into dark corners all the time?"

"Seems like dark corners are all we have anymore," Jesse replies sadly.

"Not for long," Rachel promises, her hand reaching to his cheek. "I've already auditioned for Julliard and Tisch and I know I impressed the judges. Next week is NYADA and then this is all over. I'll accept whichever school offers me the best scholarship, you can transfer to finish your senior year in New York and then we can finally be together; you, me and our daughter."

You see, the one condition Rachel could not keep was shutting Jesse out of her life. She tried, but when she attempted to end their relationship over the phone he came back to Ohio to find out what was going on and she could not withhold the truth from him. He wanted to give up college but she was adamant that he stayed. She knew his parents would cut him off if he went against their plans for him in order to stand by her and she would not be responsible for that. She talked him into going along with Shelby's plan until they were both in a strong enough position to stand on their own. In the past 2 years they have been meeting secretly, on rare occasions Rachel has been able to take Cadence with her so the baby could know her father. Jesse had heard from his Ohio contacts that she and Puck were an item which is why he has turned up on her doorstep. Rachel assures him that nothing has happened between her and Puck but she has led him on a little to keep Shelby from getting suspicious of her and Jesse.

Unfortunately, Puck overhears Rachel and Jesse talking and then sees them kissing. When he realises that Rachel has been using him as a beard he is so angry that he spills everything to Shelby. Then there is a big confrontation of Shelby, Rachel and Jesse. Shelby is upset with Rachel for lying to her all this time. When Rachel's plan to take Cadence to New York with her and Jesse comes out, Shelby refuses to hear it, says it would be career suicide for Rachel to try to become an actress and raise a baby at the same time. She insists that whether or not the baby is Rachel's, Shelby is Cadence's legal guardian and she will not let her go. Definite deja vu to the events surrounding Rachel's birth. But something Shelby says gets Jesse to thinking - she said that it was her fault Rachel got pregnant and she would not let it ruin her life. Then it all comes out, how Shelby rigged both Rachel and Jesse's birth control. Rachel is horrified that her mother would do such a thing and tearfully storms out.

Unfortunately, driving while so distraught leads to a car accident and Rachel winds up in hospital with head injuries. Shelby is guilt stricken at what her manipulations have lead to. When Rachel wakes up, she and her mother have a heart to heart and Rachel comes to understand that her mother is not really evil, it is that her past experiences have made her over-controlling, especially when it comes to her family and the threat of them being taken from her. She had once been powerless to hold onto her own baby daughter and it has warped something inside her. But she really did think she was acting in Rachel's best interests, that Rachel would be happier as a Broadway success than a young mother. In the end, Shelby agrees to let Cadence and Rachel go. Rachel knows how hard that is for her mother, that for all her faults she really does love her daughter and granddaughter. So she forgives her. Queue sad violins.

Lastly, we fast forward a few years. Rachel and Jesse are starring in a Broadway play. Little Cadence is in the audience with her Uncle Puck, Aunt Marcie and her grandfathers (Rachel apologised to Puck for using him and they stayed friends, eventually he gets together with Marcie). Shelby is watching from the wings – she is the director of the play. That is her true calling – to direct. She moved to New York with Rachel and Jesse, because realistically there was no way they could keep up with the demands of Broadway while raising a baby but between the three of them it was doable. Also, Shelby set up her Broadway Daycare centre in those early years so that was an ideal set-up. Then when Cadence started school she got back into showbiz. Her years as a champion show choir director made for an easy transition to stage show director. That is the final irony - after all these years she is still making Jesse and Rachel act the parts she sets for them, only this time it is harmless.

Happy endings all round!

**A.N. So, I trust this satisfies my readers. This story kind of got away from me and it was hard to redeem Shelby after the things I had her do, but hopefully I explained her motivations enough for it to be understandable if not excusable. I truly do find the relationship between her and Rachel a goldmine of melodrama just waiting to be tapped, and of course you can't have a Rachel and Shelby story without Jesse (sorry Puckleberrians). **


End file.
